Zeke Rakes the Leaves

Do you remember your Grade 2 Reader, when Zeke cleans up the leaves in the yard and at the end the children have a bonfire? Remember how Zeke put the potatoes under the bricks and everyone in the neighbourhood had baked potatoes after the bonfire? I just love cozy stories like that. Maybe that is one of the reasons why I enjoy yard work so much. As I’m working I reflect on old stories of how it used to be in the Olden Days, when people were neighbours to each other.

Today I think we have lost the feeling of being neighbours with our actual neighbours but we have transferred that camaraderie to our colleagues instead. People simply aren’t home long enough to become friends with their next door neighbour. Children rarely play outside so they only learn how to be friends in school. In school, like at work, there are barriers with friendships. You have to be in the same grade for example, to be friends. You have to be in the same group. If you don’t know your own group, the other groups will force you into one for you. Or worse, you will be an Outsider. At work it is not quite as harsh but I notice at luncheons or town hall meetings that the same people sit with their same group time after time.

I will be out in the yard today, putting away the last of the summer things and starting to trim up the bushes and trees. When I see the remaining dried up berries and the withered rhubarb I feel sad but I enjoy the sad feeling too. It’s more like nostalgia than sadness because I know there will be another spring and another summer. I always have hope that “next year” I will have a better garden. Last night I fell asleep thinking about how I will reap the seeds off the various flowers and wondering if I should sow them now or wait until spring. This morning I still haven’t found the answer except, sow half now and leave some for the spring in case the first sowing doesn’t take. That’s the nice thing about a big garden, there’s always enough for a Plan B.