Seasonally Prepared

Yesterday was a warm sunny day with temps in the mid 50s.  I headed outside for some fall clean up chores.  Though Sandy blew away many of my fall leaves, plenty remained and those needed to be raked into the garden.  From there, they will be used by the handful whenever I make an addition to my compost bin.  The rest will decompose into the garden soil and by spring I'll never know they were there.

The day was so lovely that I wore short sleeves and tackled a few other chores.  The driveway needed cleaning up after the neighbor's newly constructed fence was installed and that meant that a lot of dirt and detritus needed to be raked away.  The front lawn also needed its final mow of the season.

Those chores complete, I came inside for a shower and considered tackling bulb planting and Christmas lights later this weekend.  Though Sassafras House rules prevent the turning on of Christmas lights before December 1st, I like to get ready before then.  Hanging lights is sometimes an occasion for cursing and it's a less taxing chore when I have sun and warmth on my side.  Yesterday was so nice, I hoped that today would also be lovely.

Ha.  Cloudy, windy and with temps in the 40s does not exactly qualify as nice.   But I am well-rested and after a trip to Home Depot, I was in possession of 60 half-price daffodil and tulip bulbs.  That calls for planting and as of this writing they are all happily in the ground in the front yard, ready to winter over and bloom come the spring.

Filled with inspiration, I hung the Christmas lights on the front porch and made some plans for decorating the iron table that lives on the porch.  Next week, I will add holiday greenery.  In the meantime, it's nice to have the hard parts completed.  That's happy!