Here in Saint-Aignan, we seem now to have said au revoir to a three-month period of frequent soaking rains. The autumn rains arrived on the heels of three months of extreme drought, which had made the summer of 2019 the driest we've had in 16 years of living here.
The pendulum swung the other way in September, and between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30 about 425 millimeters of rain — nearly 17 inches — fell from the skies. That's about three times what we would normally expect. The rain, however, was just one aspect of the change in the weather. The other was the near constant darkness — after months of blue skies, we lived through months of gloom, even as the hours of daylight got shorter and shorter because winter was approaching.
The pendulum swung the other way in September, and between Sept. 1 and Nov. 30 about 425 millimeters of rain — nearly 17 inches — fell from the skies. That's about three times what we would normally expect. The rain, however, was just one aspect of the change in the weather. The other was the near constant darkness — after months of blue skies, we lived through months of gloom, even as the hours of daylight got shorter and shorter because winter was approaching.
Autumn is the season when not only rain but also leaves come falling down. In October and November, there wasn't much we could do but watch the leaves fall and accumulate. It was just too wet for us go out and get them up off the ground. A major part of living the life in Saint-Aignan is taking care of the house and garden. It's hard work for people our age, but it can be very satisfying.
Now, finally, in December, we've been able to clean up a little bit. Our house is surrounded by river-rock gravel driveways and pathways, and when leaves rot on the gravel they turn it a dark color that is almost depressing — not to mention neglected-looking.
The trees that drop the most leaves are two big maples out front, and a big linden tree out back. We got all those leaves that were on the gravel driveway and the gravel path moved yesterday. We raked them up and packed them into "garbage toters" — "wheelie bins" — and hauled them out back to dump them on our vegetable garden plot.
The leaves that are covering the grass under the linden will probably just have to stay there for the winter. Come spring, when the growing season starts up again, the lawn mower will turn them into mulch that will be good fertilizer. I'll till the leaves we dumped on the vegetable garden plot into the soil in the spring to enrich the garden for the 2020 season.
Here's what the linden tree looks like now.
Compare the photo above to how the tree looked in this photo I took on November 19. All those leaves came down all of a sudden.
P.S. I just heard on the weather report that the rains are predicted to return starting this weekend.
P.S. I just heard on the weather report that the rains are predicted to return starting this weekend.
What a good thing that you got the raking done now, before the rains! I think it is wonderful that you keep your house and yard so well. I cannot do it anymore and I can't pay for everything I would like to have done.
ReplyDeleteWalt does most of the work: mowing, pruning, planting the garden, watering, etc. I do the tilling and try to help with the cleanup when something gets pruned or leaves need to be raked up. It is satisfying to see the result after the hard work it takes.
DeleteWe are very lucky. Our grandson, 7, loves to sweep and rake. He spent a week with us at the end of October and kept the yard raked. He's been over almost every weekend since and runs into the yard to take up the week's deposit of fresh leaves before coming into the house to say hello. This is one thing I hope he doesn't grow out of.
ReplyDeleteAnytime you want to bring your grandson here, we'll have plenty for him to do. You are lucky to have help!
DeleteThat's a lot of leaves! Do you use any to mulch your other gardens around the house? Your comment about the grandson made me laugh!
ReplyDeleteAll the leaves we rake up go onto the vegetable garden plot. That's where we need mulch and compost the most. In most years, we also rake up the leaves that have fallen on the ground out back, but not this year — too rainy for too long. Now the rains are supposed to return starting later today. At least we got done what we got done.
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