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Thursday, October 23, 2014

Holding On . . .

 
One Lone White Annabelle Hydrangea holding on . . .
 while the others are dried and ready to close up shop for the season.
 okay my dear friends . . . I have a bit of a whine going on.
I hope I won't lose you while I vent!
I am into day four of
LEAVES
raking, blowing, hauling, mowing
and then doing it all over again. 
each year I enter into this fall time leaf space
saying it will be fine
there won't be too many leaves
and I dig in and start cutting back my hostas and other plants
so blowing the leaves out of my gardens will be easier for me

 that works for awhile
but there are so many leaves I can't seem to
cut back the plants fast enough in time
to gather up the leaves that need to be hauled away
Mister IGH is my guy to haul the heavy leaves,
I rake them up onto the sheets,
he pulls the heavy leaf load back into the woods. 
(we use old, light weight sheets to rake the leaves on to
and then haul them away into the back woods.)
( He told me earlier yesterday he has hauled at least twenty loads so far.
(I just finished raking up four more loads for him to haul back) 

I am making some progress, some areas are cleaned,
until the next winds come along and blow more leaves off the trees. 
 and some areas remain leaf covered 
in the back yard there are places that the leaves are knee deep
the bitter sweet vine was filled with the leaves and berries
the day before yesterday and today the vine is almost empty
When the trees are all leafed out you can't see back into the woods,
but now it is pretty much open and covered in brown.   
I am on my third blower in two years.
I purchase light weight and inexpensive. 
Light weight because they are easier for me to handle
and inexpensive because I know how long they will last. 
This is the famous bird feeder that almost took my finger off a few years back.
I am brave enough to load it again, (with gloves on).
That bottom ring flips the squirrels off when they jump on to get some food.
They have it all figured out now though,
they jump on the ring, the ring goes around with them on it
and tosses some of the sunflower seed
on the ground and they are happy campers!
See where they scratch away at the metal to get some seed?
~
In answer to the question
lots of acorns means what
An old tale has it that when you have a year with lots of acorns,
 you will also have lots of snow.
We have tons of acorns, last year not many.
So maybe the tale is just a tale!
~
mentioned to me this morning that one of our local weather men
is saying there is a "maybe" for snow on the 31st.
He is also hinting of a snowy November on the way.
 
Click on the Musings from Kim above and it will take you to her site.
She and her husband have a huge Halloween party each year.
It will be worth your visit just to see all their decorations
plus their soon to be twenty carved pumpkins!
~
One more thing,
I am taking a painting class tonight.
Maybe you'll see the results tomorrow.
Until next time,
Love, Lynne
 

14 comments:

Buttons Thoughts said...

Painting class how exciting you should paint leaves you are going to miss them when they are covered with six feet of snow according to the acorns:) Hug B

TexWisGirl said...

you do get a TON of leaves. :) all that raking, gathering, blowing, hauling, dumping gets you in shape for...(snow). ;)

Nancy said...

I can totally understand your situation with the leaves. Our mountain house in virtually in the woods and therefore surrounded by trees which means LEAVES LEAVES LEAVES….
I guess I am showing my age as this year my "young" garden man is doing most of the leaf work….I know it's good exercise but just got too many irons in the fire….Good luck with your painting class...

eileeninmd said...

Lynne, we have given on the leaves. We live right next to the woods and no one would rake there. On a windy day they just blow all around.. I guess it could be considered good exercise, right? If we have another bad winter like last year, I am moving.. Have fun at the painting class. Enjoy your evening and the weekend ahead!

MarmePurl said...

Do.Not.Hurt.Your.Back.
One needs to be able to be well to paint.

Margaret Birding For Pleasure said...

I can see leaves are a BIG problem for you.

Barbara Lilian in France said...

Leaves & yet more lkeaves, keep smiling and think of your waistline after all the exercise you get from clearing them.then the gift of lovely rich soil. give the trees a shake then maybe the leaves will fall off altogether. :)
Enjoy your weekend.

barb said...

Makes one wonder who ever decided to start raking leaves? We have three horrible trees with all those seed pods that take all winter to drop. Mr b has a sweeper for his riding mower and a leaf blower. Works great and we never have to rake anything.

Gail said...

You are very busy with the yard work. It looks good.

We do some raking but mostly mulching by mowing and letting it lay.

Painting class is the up side of this. Enjoy

Pamela Gordon said...

Your woods really are pretty out there Lynne, but I'm sure you are so done with raking all the leaves from your beautiful trees in the gardens around your house. I also heard that we might get 'significant' snow in mid-November. Boo. We bagged 5 of the really tall paper yard waste bags of leaves the other evening and that doesn't count all the leaves hubby dumped on our vegetable garden to be turned under soon. We only have 5 maple trees but they produce millions of leaves!! He mows them with the mulcher and catches them with the rear bagger. Enjoy your art class.

Cranberry Morning said...

The painting class sounds exciting! BTW, we also have a ton of leaves. I think there are more this year than ever before. That TexWisGirl and her snarky comment for those of us who live in snow land. LOL I have done nothing about the leaves so far. I need to get busy.

This N That said...

Happy Painting Lynne..That's a ton of leaves but don't you just love the trees??Probably not the time of year to ask you that..My leaf blowing days are just about over..(I guess you can be glad that your trees are healthy)..They do it here anyway.Who knows what winter will bring?? COLD for sure..

Bethany Carson said...

Looks like a lot of leaves to work on!

Lois said...

We have only one large maple in our backyard, and it produces tons of leaves . . . well maybe not tons, but while raking them up it seems like it L)