Leaf Piles

Ask someone what are their favorite things about Autumn and invariably one of their answers would be the colorful leaves. I'm right on board with that. It is looking beautiful around here these days. The air seems to literally glow in brilliant hues of gold, red, and orange. Living in a village designated as a "Tree City USA", there is no end to the vibrant colors around town. The fallen leaves even look beautiful covering the ground.

Another thing people might add to their list would be leaf piles evoking cozy images of children jumping into them and scattering the crunchy leaves everywhere. I most likely would include those on my list as well. However, what doesn't make the list is the raking of those leaf piles. And since I have no children, it's really more of a chore than an anticipated outcome.

I spent the better part of the afternoon yesterday wrangling leaves into piles in the yard. I started in the backyard with the rake. The sun was shining and the air was crisp but not too cold, (Perfect for working outdoors). I happily set about doing my task.

That lasted about fifteen minutes. It was about then that I realized how out-of-shape I really am when my back started to hurt and I could already feel blisters forming beneath my gloves. But I soldiered on. In the end I had four lovely leaf piles. (That will eventually need to be raked onto a tarp and dragged out to the curb, but that's a story for a different day.)

When I turned my attention to the parkway (We live on a corner, so there's a lot of ground to cover there...and covered it was, with the leaves from four trees.) my spirits definitely plummeted. I thought about giving up. And then I remembered the leaf blower in the garage. After fooling with cords (Three of them needed to be joined to give me enough length to work.) and cursing our decision to not get a gas powered one, I was ready to go. Once I got the hang of the blower, it really was kind of fun, although I did feel as if my whole body was vibrating by the time I was done. And, of course, I couldn't get the leaves to blow in nice, neat rows at the curb like the local landscape guys can, so I left them close to the curb and we'll rake them the last foot before our pick up day.

All in all, I was satisfied with a job well done. Of course looking out the window today, it seems like I didn't rake at all, but such is life this time of year. At least tackling it a little at a time won't make the end job so daunting.

Which is how I'm approaching the revisions on "This Feels Like Home". Little by little I'm chipping away. Eventually I'll have to look at the big picture, but for now taking scenes here and there that need wrangling is working fine.

Until next time,

Happy Reading!

Debra
www.debrastjohnromance.com
An Unexpected Blessing - a Thanksgiving novella - coming November 21