Falling Leaves

Minnesota, land of four seasons: and each one is a marvel to behold as nature continues to change around us.

Fall is a time of preparation. We prepare our homes, our cars, our yards and our bodies for the upcoming winter; anticipating the short days and falling snow that soon will be upon us.



The leaves are nearly all fallen now from the trees and we have been madly trying to gather them up and dispose of them so our lawns will be vibrant and green in the coming spring. The final fertilizing of the year has been done and we have had our first hard freeze of the fall, but the garden mums continue to bloom and my petunias in the front planter are stubbornly hanging on to the memory of warmer days.



The gutters are cleaned of debris and prepared to take on the white, frozen assault which is inevitable.

But we also need to pause each day in the time of preparation to appreciate the changes taking place.



On a cool fall day last week, I had the opportunity to care for Soren again. We seized the day and brought out the lawn tractor to pick up the fallen leaves. Riding on my knee, the 3 year old cherub squealed with glee as we rode in circles around the yard. After we had picked up all we could mechanically, we grabbed the rakes and swept the remaining dried foliage into a big pile. The musky aroma of fall was in the air as Soren took joy in running across the yard and flinging himself into the pile.


Being the little neatnik that he is, Soren did not mind at all when I asked him to help me to load the leaves into the wheelbarrow. He was quite meticulous about the job, wanting to make sure to get each and every leaf off the grass. But when I picked him up and popped him onto the top of the load in the wheelbarrow, he was not quite sure what to expect next.....Grandma raised the handles of the wheelbarrow, full now of leaves and boy, racing over the bumpy yard to the disposal area in the back of the yard. Again the air was full of happy little boy screams of 'YIPPEEE!'

Fall is a time of endings - the end of summer and warm, sunny, lazy afternoons; I had to also absorb the sadness that this would have been such fun for Soren's Grandpa, my dear Terry to have experienced. I paused a moment and hoped that Terry could somehow 'see' us playing and was smiling.