All the leaves are brown

[bunchofgrapes]

My neighborhood is almost 40 years old. That's fairly young for inside the beltway but I'm outside the beltway and in my area, it's one of the older, more established neighborhoods. That means we have a lot of rentals mixed in with homeowners. We have people who take very good care of their house and their property and some who don't.

I've lived here for almost 19 years. I've seem a lot of transitions, some bad but mostly good. Because this is an older area surrounded by newer townhomes and single family homes, you get all the amenities, including excellent schools, without the higher rent/mortgage. That means houses don't stay on the market for a very long time. It also means that rentals are snatched up quickly.

I am an end unit townhouse. I love my townhouse because it's two level, not three or four like the newer ones, it has a large balcony off the master bedroom, good size bedrooms (master bedroom is huge), and the living room walks out to a nice little fenced backyard. I'm not a fan of having a big deck off the living room and then the walkout down below. Because it's an established neighborhood, we have mature trees. Lots of them. My yard alone has a huge willow tree in the front yard, a maple on the back corner and a Bradford Pear right behind my fence. I planted the willow and the pear. The maple came with the house. Having so many trees means there are a whole lot of leaves to rake in the Fall. For probably the last 18 years, I've been one of maybe two or three houses on my street to rake leaves but one thing I noticed the year, and especially today, is the way everyone is out, raking leaves, bagging the leaves (usually, if they do actually rake them, they just leave them in a big pile so they can blow everywhere), and generally cleaning up their yards. Like I said, this neighborhood has gone through a lot of transitions and from what I'm seeing, this is a good one. And it's these good ones that make me continue to love my house and my neighborhood.

Oh, and for the record I like raking leaves. I really like it when the air is crisp and smells of chimney smoke but I'll take sunny and 68.

Comments

[boubabe14.livejournal.com]

I don't have to rake leaves here (just cut a few palm fronds every couple of weeks) but I always found raking to be a cathartic activity in the fall. Yea! for living in great neighborhoods in a great home :-)

[bunchofgrapes]

Cathartic is exactly what raking leaves is for me. There are times when I've contemplated moving to a condo in a more urban area but I'm not ready to give up the yard just yet.