The Garry Oak leaves have gathered on our path down to the house (the grouse grind) and they can be slippy and kind of dangerous.. (unplanned cliff diving), so my project d’jour was to rake the hill. One armed, it is a slow process. But it was a beautiful day despite the fog and I am always eager to find an excuse to get outside. I just puttered slowly, and when I finished it looked more like a forest with a leafless path than a carpeted golf course.               

                              There was evidence that this fellow has been down by the house.. probably while we were in town at Christmas.

E was busy looking at his diesel muffler situation… He has found a place in Delta that can sell us a brand new muffler for  192.00 if JN is unable to weld the part we need fixed. The door to the shed stays open when we run the generator in the mean time. We had a response from our propane tanks for sale ad in Kijji. As you may recall we are selling our three 100 pound tanks. 75.00 each…  If all goes well the tanks will go out and the muffler will come in..

Both dogs had tics yesterday.. poor things.. I think they are  getting them from the pond at the end of the lane. When I took the dogs along the lane today, there was a twenty-foot (skinny) tree laying across the lane at the entrance to A’s property. I was able drag it out-of-the-way. (not heavy).. but it was wierd.. no wind, no rain.. and just boom a tree falls over….. But last week in the big wind storm.. nothing…

Truth be told, I would have preferred a more perfect result from my raking efforts today.. It frustrates me that I can’t work like I used to be able to .. But I had to walk away and be happy  with how it looks. After all, I do live in a forest, and when I think about it… I wouldn’t want people thinking I was picking up every single leaf that falls and had become mad

as a hatter.

** This posting has been edited from the original