Leaves Everywhere

Here's a photo I took today while I was sitting at my outside worktable. I used a larger format so you can see it better. See all those spots that look like I might have forgotten to wipe of the lens? Those are leaves flying through the air. As the wind blew today, all those leaves fell from the golden rain trees. And today they certainly did provide a golden rain.

If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you'll see the leaves even more clearly. I would have like to have snapped the photo just as a leaf was right on top of me, but the camera and I don't react that quickly. Now the whole area between my studio and Andy's is covered with leaves. I suppose I will sweep them up tomorrow or at least get a start on them. Andy won't be back in until Wednesday. There are two other glassblowers who sometimes sweep up our leaves. Maybe they'll help out.

I've never liked fall and/or winter when the trees lost their leaves. It always seemed so sad and depressing to me to see the bare trees. But now it occurs to me that when the trees are bare, they allow more light to fall to the ground. At a time of year when there's less daylight from shorter days, it's nice to have the extra light.

And certainly today was a beautiful warm day, even though it is winter. I sat at my table in my short sleeved tee-shirt. It was a lovely day, and the days are already getting a little longer. It doesn't seem like dead of winter anymore. Of course, here in California, some of our "worst" weather is ahead, our rainy, windy weather.

Anyway, I spent the whole day, when I wasn't busy watching the tree, working on my copper cutouts for the Small Image Show. The deadline is next Sunday, so I need to keep working if I'm going to get the whole thing done in time. I know that I'll have to spend some of the time working on Spanish Village paperwork.

We have elections coming up soon and there's lots to do. Last night we had a meeting to introduce the candidates and listen to some of their/our ideas about how to improve Spanish Village. I'm running for Recording Secretary, a job I've done for two terms already. It's a great deal of work, but I feel that I make an important contribution to the Village.