I Spy Something . . . RED!

In our yard these days, that's all we see.

To start, I have to admit that it has been a huge blessing to be surrounded by enormous trees on all sides. Between the three in our neighbors yard that border our shared wall, the four out on the street and the lone tree that stands within the gates of our patio, we have shade all day long which (of course) means cooler temperatures inside the house and (slight) protection from sun-exposure when we're all playing outside.  Don't worry, Bailey still wears sunscreen.

But the MESS!!

During winter, the leaves that amassed in the yard on a daily basis was simply mind-boggling.  Sweeping and raking should have been a daily chore, but I stretched it out to every second or third day simply because it was frustrating to see an hours worth of work utterly destroyed by dinner-time.  It took me a few days to recover and gather the stamina to go at it again.

As we headed from winter to summer, the brief spring we had brought onto the patio a constant shower of pollen and immature fruit blossoms jostled loose by the wind.  My allergies were already on high alert since I can't take my medication while pregnant (and pregnancy hormones have triggered a greater sensitivity to pollen, dander and the like); the layer of plant droppings that blanketed our yard did nothing to help the situation.

And now it's summer.  

One of our neighbors trees is bearing tiny cherry-sized fruits that our Paraguayan friends have told us are manzanitas (little apples).  The tree branches hang over our wall and drop the little crimson fruits onto our yard by the bucket full.   Bailey loves to throw them as if they were a baseball or tennis ball and frequently crushes them to bits with her fingers.  Our nanny has collected, washed, and fed some to her which makes for some moments of confusion as we scold her for picking them up off the ground to eat when just earlier in the day she had some for a snack.  Her compromise? Feed them to Nala.

As the side yard is covered with the cherry-red manzanitas, our front patio gets a daily sprinkling of red flowers from a tree that sits out on the street corner.

The tree itself is beautiful; we actually have the picture of a similar tree as the background of our computer because I love the rich red color of the flowers, together with the green leaves against a blue sky.

But, man! do those blooms fall.  Here's the pile I swept up not 12 hours after the last sweep:

And two hours after that:

But in it all I will give thanks. For the shade, for the protection from the sun, and for the time outside that I get to enjoy with my family.  Granted we're working, but we also get to sit back and appreciate a job well done, even when the next breeze sends a flurry of scarlet blooms our way.