Autumn Leaves in March

Cold weather in Florida for the past four months has our trees and yards discombobulated. They don't know what season it is, and their timing is off. Our yards are brown, and our trees are losing leaves like it's Fall season instead of Spring. Because today was such a beautiful day, one we haven't had in so long, the girls came home after school, and we raked the leaves covering our yard.

When I was a child, raking leaves was a blast. We took the raked piles and jumped into them. We made obstacle courses with several collections of leaves, and after we tired with the piles, we spread them all over the yard into floor plans of houses. One year we got so into building leaf houses that we raked up the leaves in our neighbor's yards, bagged them, and carried them into my yard where we dumped them to build bigger and better houses. My father told the story for years.

Russ: "They raked all the neighbors' yards and brought those leaves into mine!"

Raking leaves as an adult is not as fun as I remember. The girls wanted a big enough pile for jumping into, and I obliged with their help. By the time we had the extensive collection raked, my arms and shoulder muscles were sore, and I had red blisters on my hands.

Still, it was worth it to see them having fun. Even the dog joined in the fun. I then suggested we rake the pile in front of the swing, and then had to that grand idea into a reality.

They climbed the swing and jumped into the leaves, and they laughed while I stood and watched them doing the very activity I had once enjoyed.

And all was right with the world.