400 Buckets

When summer is over and autumn begins, the first change I notice is that the slant of the sun is all wrong. The sun is high but it's light is different. There is a coldness and a dimness. My yard takes on the look of slow decline as growth stops and death begins. Even before the signs of winter are apparent I am outside hacking down everything that I have enjoyed, the ground cover, the grasses and the ivy. Next comes the pruning of tree limbs and bushes. Ultimately I pull up the COLOR. What is left of my fertile yard is as baren as an environmentalist's idea of zero scaping. It is Ugly.

The process of maintaining a Garden of Eden during the summer is a hobby of mine which requires a great amount of time, muscle and sweat. The destruction of this Garden is even more daunting. All of which gives me joy and peace. I start my outside hobby in May and finish in October, I spend at least two hours a day in the dirt; planting, pulling, digging. During the growing season I over-fill twenty six "green" curbside garbage cans and in the dying season I fill an additional four heaping truck beds.

Now that my summer hobby is over I fall into hibernation mode which includes hot baths, sitting by a warm fire and cowering under a comforter with a book. I won't be absolutely content until the sun glows warm  again.

14 hand filled blue buckets equal one green garbage can...24 weeks times 14 buckets equals 336 hand carried buckets per growing season PLUS 56 extra for fall clean-up.... MAKES A TOTAL OF 400 hand carried buckets of yard waste. This is why I don't go to the gym in the summer. I don't have to.

 
I load up the truck when the green container is full. One truck load equals four green containers

-----UGLY-------

PRETTY