It seems like every fiber of my body aches right now. I woke up to a beautifully mild autumn day. I could go outside easily without a sweater. The children and I headed out back after I furiously cleaned the house. My mission today was to rake the leaves from our ash and juvenile cottonwood trees, and to pull up the dry plants from my beds.

I began with the leaves. I used the leaf blower even though it always leaves my hand vibrating in an unsettling way, it gets the job done quite quickly. Still, I had to use the rakes to shovel up the leaves into the trash bags. All the movements this job required are surely the reason for my aches, and a desire to get to bed early.

Ron took the garage and the front yard. Our pumpkins were thrown out, much to the dismay of our neighborhood squirrels. I caught one taking the top from our pumpkin to munch on earlier this week. It was really very entertaining to watch the animal drag something twice it's size to the base of our tree.

It was really bittersweet to bag away the remains of my garden. This was my first real success at growing a flower and vegetable garden. I enjoyed every minute of it. I know there will be other gardens in other places that I have the foresight to start much earlier. Yet this garden in our own home is special. Much of it will be back next spring. I'm not sure if I will see it or not because of our move. We may have tenants or new homeowners here. I hope they will love every leaf and blossom as I did.