I went to my mom’s on Sunday. Her place is a solid 2.5 hour drive from here. I left at around 8:00, and when I hit the Queensway I realized there were a couple things I had forgotten to bring with me. Namely, a pot of blooming hyacinths I had bought as an Easter gift.
The drive was lovely. It was clear and sunny and I only got stuck behind a slow driver twice.
There’s a couple of junkshops near where she lives and on the way in I bought seven lovely little vintage drinking glasses. I couldn’t help myself, they are so sweet. Pics to come!
But the main the task du jour was to rake.
This is no trivial undertaking.
Since I am morally and environmentally opposed to using leafblowers on personal property, as I raked I prayed a sudden localized tornado to alight on the piles of leaves and to suck them up into the sky never to be seen again. But that didn’t happen.
It is impossible to bag leaves here. We weren’t burning them this time, which in itself can be a slow process. The only way to do it is to rake everything onto a tarp, fold the four corners over like a big dumpling, drag it to the “heap” and dump it. The “heap” is a 15-foot deep pile of rotting leaf matter that’s located over a little hill at the back of her property. I shudder to think how many creepy crawlies are living there. In between armfuls of leaves I spyed several beetles and one helluva big spider, it was tan with a big stripe down its back.
The other issue at stake is that my mother and I have different opinions as to what a raked lawn should look like.
I feel that a few scattered leaves here and there is okay. Why kill yourself to get every one? Besides, what are the worms going to eat at night? Everyone knows that a healthy lawn has a healthy worm population? so why not make it a happy place for them?
Here’s my idea of a lawn that’s been sufficiently raked:
Here’s my mom’s:
And here’s a few shots of the property and tarp system:
Fortunately the weather cooperated and it was pleasant to be working outdoors. We raked, chatted, drank coffee in pretty cups and had a restful dinner at which I ate more potatoes that I have all year. At the end of the day I was feeling sufficiently sore, and climbed into my car for the long drive home.
