Monday ... overcast, but clearing

This is what I am happy about.  Finally the weather was fair enough for a bit of uninterrupted yard clean up.  Our front yard is about .25 acre of lawn and landscaping.  I try to keep it very lovely ... well maintained, manicured, but with a subtle easy going vibe.  The back yard has an area of lawn with landscaped borders, but it quickly tumbles back in to the forest where the first Americans hunted ... a child perched in our wonderful tree house could maybe listen carefully enough to hear the Indians packing up to leave when white settlers claimed this very  fertile soil for a village surrounded by plantations ... very few of which remained after Sherman's march through here.  There is a tree in my yard whose many rings witnessed those events.  I think I'll go get a picture of it right now.  I couldn't believe how big that tree was when we bought this home twenty years ago ... now I just find it hard to believe that one single tree can drop so many leaves!

From the center of the trunk I estimate the branches to extend out 40' easy ... the tree is epic.  In the branches mid way down is a section of the tree which was struck by lightning last Spring.  It zapped the bark off all the way down to the ground, like a zipper undone.  A ribbon of bark was found in the yard ... probably fifty feet away, and it took a while for me to figure out where it came from.  The broken branch was hidden in the green leaves. but became apparent as winter bared the branches.  The leaves didn't fall from that section, I guess they were welded in place.  That section is probably a little better then fifteen foot long.  When it falls ... and it will ... it'll do some damage.  I'd like to ask someone to wrangle it safely down, but I don't know who or how.  Maybe I will do it myself.

dormant gardenia in foreground
red azalea with blooming daffodils at it's feet
vegetable boxes (not shown) with blueberry trees along the fence line nearby
White Dogwood
Purple Redbud barely seen
Oak
Tree house slide
Magnolia and pine providing the green background

Here is a shot over the vegetable planting boxes towards the tree house.  It is three stories tall with the yellow slide down from the first floor.  Initially I had a zipline planned from the top, but I couldn't bare the thought of a child getting hurt between here and there. It's a fairly steep descent down to a back porch terminus ...  Mom isn't much fun!

On Saturday I had help bagging the leaves that had settled in outlining the driveway.  Ummm ... about 25 big black bags full!  I was so glad for the help cause it's been driving me crazy!  This has been a wet weather winter here in the South.  Today, when it warms up a bit, I am going to rake leaves out of my front beds and pull any little stray weeds ... time to lay down the fresh mulch.  Already bulbs are popping through ... and the azaleas are blooming.

Well, writing this morning has cajoled me into a better frame of mind.  I was just pissed.  This is Spring Break week ... supposed to be a bit of a vacation week, but the city schools and the University are out of calendar sync.  L and I had planned to make a trip to Texas this week ... which was cancelled because we don't need to look for a home over that way.  Next week, when he's back at the office, our school age kids will be out. ... I'm planning consolation trips for them ... day trips.  Four is interested in the longest zipline in the world, but Five shutters to imagine.  Five would like to see the aquarium again and shop ... mostly shop ... my little shopper (I know the aquarium is thrown in as an incentive for me to drive to Atlanta!).  Four doesn't want to waste a day shopping.  Ugh!  At 17,  Four can easily find a zillion fun ways to while away a day, or a week ... I feel fortunate for a spot on her dance card!  My son says he is available to help me this week ... he stayed home for his Spring Break.  He's still asleep (but I know he is serious about the offer).

L got out very early to golf ... and mentioned in passing that he intends to spend the next few days out on a field trip.  Yeah ... that's the pisser.  I would have liked a heads up.  Would I have made plans for a few days away myself ... most probably not.  I really should though.  I really should, but, I won't leave the two youngest here alone, even with their big brother to look out for them.  What I'm going to do is find something to do that I can look back at on Friday ... maybe just cleaning out the front flower beds and laying in the mulch.  And I'm going to try not to think about all the leaves that fall, and all the years that they have fallen and been picked up and bagged ... .  While Three was working with me on Saturday I said, "There must be a better way to keep up with these leaves ... " and he asked "How could you?  There are so many of them."  I answered that I just didn't know ... I had wasted my thinking time for that daydreaming about the lack of fallen leaves at the beach.