There I stood staring at the windfall of leaves that covered almost every inch of the lawn in my back yard. I overwhelmed myself. Where did all of those leaves come from? Then I remembered …

When my trees were planted I was ecstatic that I would have shade, from the Maple and the River Birch, and apples, and pears, and peaches, and not to forget the grapes and blackberries. Yes!

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Now it’s many years later and my trees are mature (that means very tall and bountifully leafy). Every season I relished their abundance; fresh, jammed, and bottled. But nooooowwww, now it’s fall – do you know why they call it fall? HA! Because all of the leaves FALL to the ground and then I get to pick them all up!

Which is what I did – I raked and raked and raked those crispy, dead leaf remains into piles, and piles, and piles, and piles then I spent another at least half day bagging them – it was grand exercise – bend and stretch, twist and turn, lift and drop. That night my muscles were so sore I felt every one, individually screaming at me to just stop moving!

I hate leaves!!

This morning I took the Mala Dog for her morning sniff and wander and found myself walking a worn field road alongside very old, very enduring cottonwood trees. Then I realized I was smiling while crunching leaves under foot, and noticed silver gray cottonwood leaves flicking up in drifts in front of my Asolos. I smelled the dusty leafy air and reveled in every leafy memory that floated into my mind and I smiled more broadly.

I love leaves.!!