LEAVES!!!!

by Jeanne Adams

Do you love Fall leaves? They're all down now in my part of the country, for the most part. I've been raking and bagging them up today, and dragging the bags to the curb for pickup.

Before you frown at me for this deviation from good writing time and ask, I DO have a leaf blower. Actually, we own two blowers with varying degrees of power. (As Tawny says, there's a joke in there somewhere...) Most years, I don't use them until very late in the season. And only then if I've left it until really late and don't have time to rake.

Why not blow, you ask? Because I LIKE raking. It's contemplative and peaceful, unlike the roar and whine of blower technology. Just the leaves, the iTunes, the rake and the paper bags for the yard trim collection....yeah. I like it.

Susan Sey was admitting that she has a leaf blower too. And a snow blower, but that's a necessity for the Sey household, like it is for KJ. Those two live a bit far to the North to be doing without power tools come Winter. Susan admitted though, that like me, she dislikes the noisy, irritation that is a leaf blower. Caren has one too, but in the sunny Carolinas, it's more about corraling the pine straw mulch back into the flowerbeds, rather than leaf blowing. Lottttsssss of pine trees in NC.

I don't like blowers in Spring and Summer either, by the way - a real spoiler to a quiet morning, for the most part. Now, it's nearly Spring Down Under in Australia where two of our Banditas live, along with a whole passle of Bandita Buddies and Guests. Grins. Anna tells me that the harbinger of spring in Oz, the wattle, will be blooming. (See the picture on the above right? That's it. BTW, who thought up THAT name for such a lovely shrub??)

Anna said it blooms this glorious yellow/gold and that it smells of honey. What on earth could be more divine?
At this season in the States, divinity is the smell of fall leaves. I love the crisp crunch and the oakey, loamy smell of them as they fall and lie on the damp earth.

Then you have the colors - every hue from brown to red to gold to greenish yellow. I love the colors! So vivid! Anna's yellow wattle looks like the color the ginko leaves turn in fall. What a glorious color!

Now Bandita Joanie says she'll blow out a breath of exasperation that winter's on the horizon, but lets someone else do the raking and blowing in her yard. (Again, that sounds vaguely naughty, in a Regency sort of way...)

Trish said the maple is her favorite tree for fall, with it's orange-y russet hues. According to her email, she doesn't blow either. Snork. Cassondra, Caren, Suz, and Susan are fond of the sugar maples as well, with their yellow to orange to scarlet splendor. Nothing like a maple tree for showy color, is there?

It's that same Maple Red for our own KJ Howe, to match the bright red snowblower she keeps at the ready for when the white, wonderful snow starts to fall, which it does much earlier in Canada than in the US.

Maybe I should move to Canada....whaddya think, KJ? Our friend Loreth White has already HAD a snow fall up in western Canada. How lovely.

For those of you who've followed the blog for a while, you know how much I love snow too. Snow blowers may be necessary in our Northern Bandita's climes, but I'll shovel it, here in DC, any time the weather gods deem us worthy of a good blizzard. (Like last year. WHEEEE!) Do you know that two of our Southernmost Banditas admitted they don't even OWN a shovel? Sacrilige!! **Caren***Cough***Suz***Cough***

Ahem.

But back to my post. My favorite leaf colors are the reddy-oranges as well, and the brown-y, golden-y beech trees, like in the picture above on the right. I adore Burning Bush with it's brilliant scarlet leaves too (like the one on the left), and I'm always sorry when the "fireworks of Fall" are over and done with for another season.

The good thing is that although most of the leaves are off the trees right now, they're still around, coloring up and decorating the ground. Since raking's much slower than blowing - again with the sly innuendo! - I'll get to enjoy it just a bit longer because there's still the backyard to rake over the next few days....

(BTW, I'm glad I'm not raking where Bandita Kate is, however. She said it was nearly 87 degrees in California! Yikes! It's in the 50's in DC, so I'm lovin' that!)

What's your favorite color for Fall? Do you have a favorite tree?

If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, in Aus, or NZ, how is Spring coming on? What's blooming bright and beautiful to welcome the season?

Do you Rake? Or Blow? (SNORK!)

And what about those snow blowers? Do you own one? Are you looking forward to Winter? I am!! (But you knew that, didn't you?)