Today I refilled the leaf trap. I recall filling it up shortly before I left for Australia but a combination of gravity and natural decomposition had reduced the height somewhat. It should also be noted that we came home to a garden liberally littered with leaf litter – which is not easy to say after an excess of alcohol.
Anyway, today being bright and sunny with barely any wind, I decided to move the leaves from the ground to the trap. (The weather is a very important consideration when it comes to raking up leaves especially as we’ve been having some pretty hefty winds lately. One nearly blew Mirinda over the other day and I didn’t wear my hat to work yesterday!)
On close inspection of the garden, it came to my attention that not only had Mirinda engaged in a little gardening of her own on the weekend but she actually cleaned up afterwards as well. I was best pleased at this unlikely turn up for the books. Actually I was amazed at how much she had accomplished while I was laid up on the sofa with the gout.
But, back to the leaves. I had set myself a big task but set to with gusto and soon had little piles of leaves for the poodles to run and jump in, turning the neat little mounds into scattered leaves once more. Not to worry, I thought, I’ll just do it again. Which I did and eventually dumped them all in the leaf trap. To show you how many there were, I have a before and after shot of the leaf trap.
The results of my raking
See? Twice as much. And I pushed them all down between barrow loads. I was so pleased with my exertions that I then went and cut back the fennel for good measure.
We also had a lovely walk in the park after lunch. The poodles gambolled around in the sunshine and there were no FSIs. We even saw a fluffy white poodle that Carmen was rather interested in.
The stump and path in the photo below is where I used to turn left to go up to where we used to live in Farnham. It was not a problem when the weather was fine and the grass was low but when it started getting dark and the grass grew, the stump was always a friendly sign post towards home.
The stump points the way
Speaking of Carmen’s interests…while I was in the garden raking away, I noticed her standing beneath the tree looking up, cocking her head from side to side in that wonderful way she has of appearing human. I looked up and a magpie was standing above her, making odd noises. It occasionally would look down at her then raise it’s head and chirp. She was transfixed. I can only assume they were communicating on some freaky animal frequency beyond our comprehension. Eventually the magpie flew off and Carmen returned to her chair for a sleep.
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I am very pleased at the thought of all the leaves having been raked up. On the weekend I’ll be able to see the lawn again! Ok the mud ….