Raking leaves

With the weather cooling down and the rain causing a huge leaf fall, my husband and I have been busy raking leaves.  Early in the Fall, I mow and compost the leaves with our lawn mower but the fallen hickory nuts have forced us to rake now.  Usually, my sweet, sweet husband does this chore single-handedly but retirement has afforded me the golden opportunity of involvement (I'm trying to be positive...Bob and I are both working hard on re-framing our attitudes and being supportive of each other). 

After working out in the gym for an hour this morning, I felt kind of guilty about neglecting our leaves and raked for about an hour.  Note to Self:  It is wonderful upper-body exercise.  It also helped me be creative because I have to figure out where to put those darn leaves.  Bob thinks all should be composted and leaves chaotic little piles in the yard for composting purposes at a later date.  With neatness being my ultimate goal, I raked the leaves around trees and shrubs.  Of course, these carefully crafted rings of leaves were swept by the wind and I ended up raking and re-raking. 

Bob sweetly (and somewhat defiantly, in my opinion) sighed and threatened me .  He said that if I want compost come February, I need to give up my OCD desire for control and let him handle this task.  Okay, okay, if you force me ....I will.

Rain, Rain, Come Again to Stay

Neither my irrigation system or sprinklers can match the renewing effects of a good rain.  As I'm writing this, the rain is drizzling down in sheets.  It's been almost two months since we've gotten anything like this wonderful cleansing rain.   There is no rushing torrent going down our yard or our street--just a good soaking that our garden badly needed. 

Just before we went to sleep last night, Bob and I sat on the porch and reveled in the sound of this welcome visitor.  It reminds me of our courting days when we would sit through hurricanes together and feel joy of just being together and facing the elements. 

Speaking of courting, our romantic-looking angel trumpets (Brugmansia) are blooming now.  They are deceptively beautiful and fragrant but all parts of the plant are reportedly poisonous.  Ours are about 8 feet tall but this perennial shrub can grow up to 20 feet.  Hummingbirds may be attracted to the white, peach, orange and yellow blooms but be careful that your dogs or children don't chew on the plants.  That's really important if you have teenagers because the plants are reportedly hallucinogenic.  Angel trumpets (some refer to them as angel trumpets of death) can grow from seeds or can be propagated from cuttings (rooting solution).  Our neighbor pulls hers inside the greenhouse for the winter so hers grow much bigger.  Mine are generally killed back by the winter but by October, they are almost 8 feet tall and blooming profusely.  They enjoy pruning, too and bloom nicely on the new growth.

Home Sweet Home

We just returned from the Dallas Fort Worth area where our daughter, Susannah, and her husband live.  It was a tiresome 13.5 hour trip there and back plus we took our dogs, Emma and Winston so we could not stop and take a much needed rest.  To say we were exhausted is not an exaggeration.

We came home to our empty nest home.  We do love Susannah's home in Mansfield-- it's the perfect size (almot 2000 square feet); it's fairly new (only 10 years and it has a wonderful modest garden that could be mowed in record time.  We're rambling around in an unneeded 4 bedroom that is going on 40 years old with a yardful of hickory trees with falling nuts that make mowing a disaster when Autumn comes.

Emma and Winston, our dogs, didn't notice that our house seems decrepit and in dire need of Extreme  Makeover Home Edition and Ty Pennington's help.  From a dead sleep, they raced out of the car and started chasing some uppity squirrels.  They headed for the doggy door and went racing the entire length of the house joyfully before collapsing in their beds (that's another story).  They didn't notice the unused house smell and start burning candles immediately.  Nor did they notice that the shrubs are looking unsightly and put that on their mental "to do" list.  They didn't seem to worry that the house will need repainting soon or start to plan to rake the leaves that had covered the walkway in our absence.  They just knew we were home, settled down immediately and started snoring.

Sometimes I wish that I could have the simple life along with the disposition of my sweet, sweet dogs.  Maybe, I just needed a lesson in my outlook.

Thank you, God, for being able to visit with my wonderful daughter, brilliant son in law and smart grandchild.   Thank you for bringing us back safely to our home, sweet home.