Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Fall Leaves

Fall is my favorite time of year, it gets chilly enough for sweaters and snuggling, the changing leaf colors, the smell of wood smoke as people start using their fireplaces and OMG PUMPKIN SPICE!!!1!!!11   (ok, that was scarcastic. pumpkin spice.. ew.)

All of the leaves changing this Fall have been absolutely glorious to behold, both in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I've never been a fan of being stuck in traffic, but all the trees on both sides along the way with their fiery reds and oranges have made it so I didn't mind in the least. I love walking through a forest in the Fall, the crackle of the crunchy leaves that have already fallen, the occasional thunk! of acorns falling, and oh my God the SMELL. Fall leaves smell heavenly. The house I live in is surrounded by large maples, honey locusts and crab apple trees. Every day when I get home now I walk through swirling brightly colored leaves, I was SO bummed when my landlord raked them up the other day (luckily the trees thwarted his efforts by dumping a whole bunch more everywhere again).

Where I work is a big office building, with lots of towering maple and oak trees in the parking area. During the summer months, I enjoyed snagging a parking spot underneath a large oak tree, since when I'd come out of work in late afternoon, my van would be in shade and therefore cooler. I quickly realized when Fall arrived that I needed to start parking away from the trees, to avoid the pelt of falling acorns on my car. The leaves have changed to spectacular yellow and oranges, and quite a few have fallen and are all over the center grassy area around which the parking spaces are situated. I always park on the far side of this area, so I always cut through it to get to the front doors (not because I'm trying to save time, but because I like walking through grass). Today when I got to work, they had a team of yardwork guys out there with handheld leafblowers, larger push leave blowers, and an even bigger aparatus that looks like a weird cage on wheels. They lined up starting at the far edge of the grassy (now covered with fallen leaves) area, and between them all systematically blew almost every single leaf into one big pile. It was awesome to watch. There was something absolutely satisfying to see them being so thorough, carefully backtracking and getting every possible leaf so that the green grass once again emerged as the pile of leaves grew on one side. Midway through the process, I had to get out of my car and walk into the building. They were working on the other side of the oval, which meant I got to happily crunch through a fairly good sized pile of leaves they had started to gather on my side. *GLEE*  As I walked into my building, I saw them start to use the cage machine, which was used as I suspected to gather up the pile of leaves for removal.

Once I got into my office, I peeked out of our breakroom window on the 2nd floor at their progress. There was a massive pile of leaves on one side that they were slowly gathering. If I hadn't had to start work I would have run down and asked them to let me jump in it a couple times. It was still a great way to start the day.

Leaf blowers! Don't you just want to be the one doing this?!


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