One week before Thanksgiving. The weather has been distinctly unfall-like. The days have been comfortable, nearly too warm for a jacket along the Fox River valley just west of Chicago. There has been no frost to speak of. Yesterday with almost seventy degree weather I busied myself raking and mulching leaves. The ideal is to work in sync with the defoliation, fancy word for the daily release of spent leaves, – clearing some of the yard every day. It seems as if there are always more leaves. But there is an end to it.

I thought to myself, if I am to benefit from the shade of the maples it is only fair that I show gratitude by mulching and removing the fallen leaves from the lawn. The mulch is used for ground cover on the hosta bed, on the raised garden beds, and under the amer maple hedge.

The yard work is welcome. The seasonal ritual is a reminder. I am connected to the earth. I have a role, a part to play in the conservation, in the embellishment of nature. I am nature even as is the maple, also the small wild animals that move about in the yard after dusk. I am a tenant here. With the possum and raccoons. My tenancy is longer than that of a bee. And shorter than that of a mountain. I belong. As do you.

I must not neglect to mention the connection the work conveys to my mother and father, my grandparents, also to ancestor-generations of which I know nothing at all. What do I owe the memory of those who lived at a prior time?

Only do the yard work with purpose, with a style, a proper care (eye) for detail…

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Enjoy these photos of fall scenes and activities.