Wednesday, October 26, 2016

The Maple Tree: Beauty and the Beast

I love the towering maple.  The birds love it also.

It is beautiful, especially in the fall, as its leaves change color.  But its beauty has a dark side--Leaf Fall.     The falling leaves create a time of intense labor for me.

Like cats who shed their winter coats in the spring, the maple drops its leaves in the fall.  The maple has no use for them in the winter, when the sun rarely shows.

The colors of the dying leaves are spectacular.  But then they fall.  In volume.

On the ground, or worse, atop the cat yard wire,  they become my problem.

We have leaf pickup three times in the next two months here in town.  The date of each pickup spans over a week and you never know when they might come during those days to pick up the leaves.   It is messy to start piling them in the street for pickup.  By the time they come for them, they will be strewn all over the area, or flattened to a soggy pulp pile by cars running over the long high piles.

But it is the best I can do here.  I rake the leaves onto plastic tarps then pull the tarp out to the street and dump the piles along the curb.

I wish I could measure the volume of leaves the maple drops each fall.

But, the cat yard wire catches the leaves too.  Want to see?  This is a 3 day accumulation.  It took me hours 3 days ago to get the leaves off.  I was going to do so yesterday again, but the blower fried.






The above photos were taken from inside the cat yard.

On previous cat yards, I attached the wire along two sides to wooden poles.  I attached hooks to the eaves and hung the poles from the hooks.  I need to redo it that way here.    Then you can lower an entire side, to dump off leaves, very easily.




There's a branch broken off, laid out horizontal, with its branchy end caught in the top of the cherry tree.  It will fall when the wind knocks it free of the cherry tree's grip.  I just have to be sure to remember its up there and to be wary.






14 comments:

  1. That is an amazing carpet of leaves.
    Take care please.

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  2. Oh, man, I've raked twice this week, not that anyone could tell the difference.

    I didn't know you had a cat yard. I’ve thought about having one, but I worry that if the cats get used to being outside in a closed yard, they might decide they want the world outside world to wander in. Do you have any thoughts about whether that’s a valid concern?

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    1. I"ve had a couple escape and they immediately made frantic efforts to get back in. IN fact, I've had the problem of other people's cats trying to "break in" to the cat yard, must figure it's something, if so many cats are in there, I don't know.

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  3. And your leaf blower broke?! You need a financial windfall, my dear, no pun intended. ~shakes head~ I wish you all the best.

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    Replies
    1. Wouldn't that be nice! A rich uncle dies. Wills me everything, including his working blower~ Ha, cracking myself up. Thanks for the good thoughts!

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  4. Was thinking of you today... we visited some folks who live here year-round... they "adopted" a tiny kitty 3 days ago... mother's feral, siblings ??? ... but this little sweetie is going to get spayed, wormed and be well taken care of. They already have 2 other cats, but are willing to take on this little one. They work in the sterilization clinic several times a year as well as attempt to trap and transport feral cats in the neighborhood. I thought it would do your heart good to know others care as you do. Just reporting in....

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    Replies
    1. It does do my heart good to hear such things, like medicine! You know me well!

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  5. So far I've managed the leaf fall by running over them with the lawn mower.

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  6. These are spectacular pictures...the maple is my favorite tree :)

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    Replies
    1. I love that darn tree too, don't get me wrong!

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  7. I know those leaves are a pain, but the photos from inside the cat yard under the leaves are very cool!

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    Replies
    1. It is awesome, to be under a roof of leaves!

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