Falling Leaves

I like them

10/20/2011 11:02 AM

By Bonnie McGrath

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Before



After (photos by Bonnie McGrath)

I've sure had a great time in the last week or so going in and out of my house. A huge pile of autumn leaves collected in front of the entire frontage of my home at Roosevelt and State--several feet in every direction--and I have crunched, crunched, crunched my way to and from my house. It was just like the old days when I was a kid and people savored falling leaves. Back then, people even picked them up and put them in scrapbooks to savor a beautiful fall color and a perfect leaf shape forever.


Yes, I've had leaves all over the throw rug on the inside of my door of late, from entering the house with leaves sticking to my shoes. But every now and then I'll open the door and shake the rug out. Leaves be gone. And that's about the only "inconvenience" from the leaves I have experienced. Otherwise, they are pure and simple, pretty and poignant piles.

So why are residents of the South Loop so eager to blow them away, herd them in bags and dispose of them? Why do South Loopers hate leaves so much? What have leaves ever done to them? Why doesn't the neighborhood appreciate the beauty and loveliness of leaves like we did when we were kids?

I have no answers. But I will say this: yesterday, a gardening service hired by my homeowners association thought they'd make me happy by blowing the leaves out of my life and away from my house. So they did. And I can't express how sad it was when I looked out to see a freshly barren sidewalk. The only consolation is that there are plenty more leaves left on my trees, which will change color, fall and replace the ones I lost. And maybe the service will complete its yearly contract before all the leaves have fallen, so that I can keep some on the lawn and around the trees and elsewhere to decompose and ultimately nourish the landscape in the future. Life goes on. Hakuna Matada! The Circle of Life!

The other consolation? In removing the leaves so abruptly yesterday, the gardeners inadvertently uncovered one of six small pumpkins I'd purchased at the farmers' market on Printers Row a couple of weekeneds ago. All six had mysteriously disappeared within a few days, one by one, sometimes during the day and sometimes at night. It was definitely an animal--a rabbit, raccoon, squirrel, rat, dog, cat or possum. Or even a coyote, a fox or a deer. All have been spotted around here--yes even at Roosevelt and State--at some point or other. In any case, whatever creature took the pumpkins had gnawed one and left it under the leaves unseen. And there it was in all it's glory yesterday. So I picked it up and put it back on my stairs. And last I looked, it was still there.



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