Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Baggage

In most parts of the Chicago suburbs, homeowners are required to rake up fallen leaves, place them in large paper sacks and leave them out for the waste haulers to carry away. Burning the leaves is not allowed.

My yard is blessed with three large mature trees, and every autumn I fill up 30 or 40 bags with leaves. I had just finished bagging when I looked at the dozens of bags that were lined up in front of my house and filled with brown, dried leaves. I was tired and sore. It was cloudy and threatening rain. The trees were nearly all bare and drab. The paper bags were drab. I and the world around me were drab. Then a yellow maple leaf detached itself from a branch somewhere above me and floated into one of the open bags, adding just a spot of color.

I went inside to get my camera.

Click on picture to enlarge. Photograph © 2005 James Jordan.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great shot James! I've given up counting how many bags of leaves have been removed from our garden. Suffice to say it's at lesat 50 so far!

James said...

And I though leaf bagging was something we just did here in the States! I feel your pain.

Kim from Hiraeth said...

Beautiful!

utenzi said...

I love that picture of the leaves, James. The yellow leaf pulls it all together and allows it to transcend the everyday. Great eye.

ninjapoodles said...

Brilliant. I could waste hours here. But they wouldn't be wasted if I enjoyed them, would they?

Ghone said...

I'm so glad you did!