Fall has fallen

That carpet of leaves was still attached to the trees this time last week.

But a couple of days of wind, followed by more than 6 inches of rain over a 48-hour period pretty much stripped the trees of their fall foliage and ended our autumnal views of the woods for another year.

The wading pool I bought for the dogs during the hottest days of the summer (which they refused to use) blew over to the chain link fence and filled up with rain, starting Monday evening and continuing until about sunrise today.

Pete the Aussie freaks out during thunderstorms. Even the most distant rumble sends him to one of his “safe” spots. When we’re watching TV in the living room, that means under the round leather-topped table boxed in by the couch and a chair. Options are under a toilet in one of the bathrooms or at the back of our walk-in bedroom closet.

We took pity on him last night and let him sleep between us on the bed. Pete never was much of a jumper and since he’s gained weight, he won’t even try to jump up onto the bed. So it falls to me to lift him onto the bed, where he flops down like a big bag of water softener salt and doesn’t budge for the rest of the night.

I don’t usually do much leaf-raking here. Some years, I fire up the mower and mulch leaves, but the yard is full of branch-ends dropped by squirrels building nests and I’m not keen on banging up my mower blades on sticks.

We shall see…