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When I was a kid I used to go out with my mother into the beechwoods nearby to collect leafmould from under the trees. It rotted down into a wonderful potting compost or a mulch for the garden. Part of my autumn memories, that. joanna ----- Original Message ----- From: "andrew burke" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, October 23, 2007 3:27 PM Subject: Re: quick snap > 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 > http://hispirits.blogspot.com/ > http://www.inblogs.net/hispirits > http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/ >