Raking Or Leaving the Fallen Leaves?

Do you want it tidy?

Do you feel that leaves are litter?

Are you afraid of what the neighbors will think if you don’t rake up the leaves?

Is your yard waste brownbagged and taken to the curb? Or are you using leaves to mulch your garden?

Most people are leaf blowing (loudly) and raking up the fallen leaves on their lawn and garden

but here’s another point of view-

“When you don’t rake or leaf-blow in the fall, this affects the soil and the biological life in your yard, lawn and garden in a positive way.”

“Raking Leaves Is Pointless—and Bad for Your Yard Scouring your yard clean is a waste of time and deprives your soil of valuable nutrients”

Another discussion here in this article

Drop Your Rake

And an article from the University of Maine


To Rake or Not to Rake

By Rebecca Long, Coordinator of Horticulture Training Programs, UMaine Cooperative Extension

“The aesthetic preference for a clean lawn, either your own or your neighbors’ (especially if you live in an HOA community), may also dictate your fall cleanup.”

A team of leaf blowers at the neighbors
-the leaves are sucked into a machine and the chopped bits blown into a truck to be hauled away
A leaf free lawn
No one has raked yet
To rake or not to rake?

Throwback Thursday

My guess this is in the 1960s I’ve posted this photo before. Those slipcovers!!

My mother holding my sister’s cat Morgan Le Fay

Wordless Wednesday

So I was influenced…

I admit it.

I follow a young woman Katipederson on TikTok who puts together meals for a family of four for $15, shopping at Aldi or Trader Joe’s or Costco.

I’ve not been inspired to actually prepare any of the meals to feed my family but I like her enthusiasm and energy and the taste testing portion with her teenage son. Here’s her link to her dip. She’s got almost 600 thousand followers.

The other day she shared a dip recipe from Trader Joe’s ingredients. Here’s the total cost of this 13×9 dish of hot dip. Using ingredients from Trader Joe’s. The Steelers vs. Browns (rivals) were playing Sunday afternoon. I had a plan. This is not one of the just under $15 total posts.

I can tell you it’s pretty rich with the cheese and heavy cream in the queso. Don’t over consume.!! And I can tell you that everyone who eats chicken in the house, loved it!!!

Just under $28 for the dip ingredients. If I’d purchased a couple of the bags of the organic corn chips it would have been an additional ten dollars.
I already had a bag of Tostitos scoops at home in the pantry
You drain the liquid off the salsa
It’s not too spicy but is flavorful with jalapeños in the queso
Stir it all up in a large bowl
Bake at 375. It did make a lot

Here’s what you need. I added a can of black beans, rinsed and drained. Got that idea from the comments. That would add $1.49 to the total.

This pic is from the Tik Tok video. The corn chips aren’t shown. I used this screenshot to find the exact products in the store. I’ve not bought them previously.

One Week Comparison of the Playground Trees

November 1st
October 25th
November 1st

“Does anyone really know what time it is?”

“The inspiration came from a real encounter Robert Lamm (keyboardist of Chicago) had as a teenager in Brooklyn. When he asked a movie theater usher for the time, the usher cryptically replied, “Does anybody really know what time it is?” This quirky response evolved into a multi-layered existential exploration.”

Song by Chicago

Julia Child’s Kitchen Guest Blog

Oh I wish I were there in person but my son Matthew and granddaughter Prema were in Washington DC. He filmed a short video and I captured a few screenshots from it. Here’s a link to the National Museum of American History Fact Sheet about the exhibition. She donated her Cambridge Massachusetts kitchen to the museum in 2001.

The Garland stove, details in the Fact Sheet.

If you’d like to see a few closeups of the objects (a Pyrex measuring cup, the “Forkery”, a ceramic fig, cat and fish prints from the walls etc) in her kitchen you can click the museum’s search pages here

Autumn Gallery

This Autumn gallery inspired by

Audrey of Minnedota Prairie Roots Blog

Looks like a picnic c. 1925

Throwback Thursday. From my grandmother’s album. Durand, Illinois.

I see my Uncle John in the striped tie looking between Aunt Edna (smiling) Could that be the back of Aunt May? My grandfather Judd VanSickle in the straw hat. My mother Marian(born 1912) with the glasses next to my Uncle Robert. My grandmother Charlotte on the far right with the white collared dress. The young man with his back to us tin the newsboy cap must be Ralph and May’s son, our Cousin Melburn

Wordless Wednesday

Neighbor’s sidewalk