Up in the remote community, the leaves are allowed their own presence -
except on the school's grass. It is the only place with such a European
luxury. The leaves fall and they fall for weeks before somebody gets out a
rake, and then all the kids like to 'help, and small piles of leaves
accumulate. When the day is half done, maybe after lunch, someone will light
the mounds and a lovely smell of burning gum tree leaves with waft around
the community. No one is afraid of smoke around there. Fire has been used
for centuries to control the growth of native plants in the bush, and the
station managers still burn off entire acres of bush to ensure the new
growth of native plants and the destruction of others. Native wild life
seems to move on and not get caught, with tree trunk living creatures
starting afresh elsewhere.
I have gathered favourite coloured leaves - ones turning yellow after their
green, or the red ones with grey veins - and laminated them. Then I cut then
into strips and give them away as book-marks.
Andrew
On 23/10/2007, Barry Alpert <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Max, Patrick. & Doug,
>
> Indeed I must spend at least 12 hours raking leaves fallen from quite a
> few
> trees, gathering them on dropcloths, and lugging them down 20 stairs to
> street level from which the county states they will collect them.
> Apparently they didn't see my last accumulation and I had to gather that
> up, put it into my car, & rid myself of the problem privately. All the
> while enduring an allergic reaction. When I borrowed my neighbor's
> blower/mulcher, it broke after a short period of usage, so I haven't been
> tempted to buy one. The mention of "fallen leaves" is for me a waking
> nightmare.
>
> Barry
>
--
Andrew
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