Our Sunday began with a couple of hours spent raking leaves and cleaning up the exterior here at Casa Fishbowl. Also, Mark put away the lawn furniture last weekend but had to pull it all out again to get to the Christmas lights, which of course, were at the very back of the shed.
I look at fall cleanup as a multistage process because I find it too overwhelming to deal with in one day or one weekend. Raking is a gradual thing, and I’m not fussy. Slow and steady wins the race here. I emptied some plant containers and Mark put away the garden hose and drained the rain barrel. I broke up the last of the branches from “tornado weekend” and turned the compost.
If it snows now it’s not the end of the world.
At lunch, we went to Mark’s parents, where we had grilled ham and cheese sandwiches. I filled four yard bags with leaves while Mark helped out with a few things around the house. The day turned into a sunny one. We took the dogs for a walk around the Monahan Drain Catchment (which sounds ugly but it’s essentially a man-made pond), where the geese are now congregating in huge numbers.
We didn’t stay long. I had to get a roast in the oven so we said our goodbyes.
On the way home I suggested we take a short walk along one of the trails in the Stony Swamp network. So that’s what we did. Walking in the woods is a different experience when all the leaves are off the trees. Suddenly, there’s a lot more to see there, including mysterious rock cairns, foundations of forgotten buildings, and old apple trees:
Piper was quite pleased with this turn of events and found lots of delightful sniffs along the way:
Her feet were muddy so on the drive home I covered my lap with a blanket we keep in the car for this purpose.
We had a pork roast for dinner, baby potatoes with lots of butter, roasted cauliflower, and a green salad (spinach and arugula this time around. I love arugula!). We opted out of our usual after-dinner walk, and instead, made popcorn and watched Netflix.
Sometimes the ordinary days are the best days, don’t you think?
