Fall Leaves

I'm embarking on a major leaf pick-up mission today.  

Thousands have already gone under the blades of the lawnmower, into the bags and later dumped into piles around the place. 

Thousands---maybe even millions---still wait on the ground after yesterday's persistent and strong winds. 

I was happy to see them falling like confetti as, for several hours, the wind blew leaves and even deck chairs into new territory.  

Normally, I would not be thrilled to see our trees go bare for another long winter.

BUT winter is coming, and, according to the weather reports, it could be here as soon as Thursday.  

My cell phone weather app tells me so, and I'd rather believe a weather prediction early in the week as opposed to being really sorry when those thousands or millions of leaves are covered with a blanket of snow.

So, I'll go at the next great pick-up with great determination to clean up every leaf possible. 

Sadly, if that snow comes as early as Thursday, the lawn may still be covered with leaves, then covered with snow. 

At least, the majority of them will be picked up and delivered to their piles around the place.  

And, maybe Mother Nature intends for this early November snow---which is predicted, showing four snowflake icons on my cell phone for four straight days---to give us just a sampling for what's to come in December, January, February, March and maybe even April.

Maybe she'll dish out a chaser of warm weather or rain to wash away the snow, and then I can sneak in one more leaf pickup later in November. 

For now, we still have a certain amount of the pretty scenes around the Selle countryside which always make fall my most favorite season of the year. 

I took a walk yesterday down our road.  Other projects and just playin' with the pups over the past several weeks have kept me from my usual daily dirt-road walks. 

So, it was kinda refreshing to take my time yesterday, strolling and stopping and just admiring the visual remnants of autumn all along the way.  

My neighbors up the road have been gone for a couple of weeks, and they're due home today. 

We all kinda keep a subtle vigil over each other's homes when any of us are out of town, so yesterday I decided these friends needed a photo to show how much around their yard had changed since they took off.  

Janice texted back, stating that she's hoping that some of the leaves in their back yard have hung on for their return, but they now know from the photo that the trees along the road have lost their fall charm.  

Still, even those leaf carpets are kinda pretty, even if they do signal a lot of tedious work to come. 

I don't know if I can squeeze out many more fall pictures, but I would say that this year's show has been spectacular, especially cuz the weather has allowed the show to go on without many interruptions. 

So, please enjoy the photos because I'm sure they'll be dwindling in numbers fairly soon. 

Happy Monday.