The Leaves, my friends, are Blowing in The Wind

Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you:
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.

Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I:
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

-Christina Rossetti

Ick, the winds of change, blowing in cooler temperatures; today twenty degrees cooler than yesterday.

The pictures above taken from my kitchen window. Jeff just cut the grass two days ago, and already the yard is covered in a blanket of leaves. Every time the wind blows, the trees sway and leaves rain down in a gentle ballet.

Which means that tomorrow morning we’ll be having the Great Debate: The Raking of the Leaves.

His position: Rake early, rake often, for the sake of next year’s grass. Since we don’t fertilize, or reseed, or do any of the things that I guess you’re supposed to do to maintain “lawn”, he feels the least we can do is ensure the grass doesn’t get smothered.

My position: We have thirty thousand trees. We border a park with thirty thousand more trees. Raking is futile. Also, I am lazy. (And I just picked up the latest in the Twilight series from the library, which is a real doorstop of a book, and is totally going to require my whole weekend to read. )

Do you know any (more) compelling arguments for letting fallen leaves lie?

Cass gets her school photo taken today. Let’s all keep our fingers crossed that she doesn’t draw all over herself with Sharpie between now and twelve noon. (Yes, this has happened on picture day before.)