A morning spent raking and scooping leaves at the Botanic Garden in the Japanese Garden was a good warm-up and workout for the day. All volunteers were retirees and there was a point in time when aches and pains were compared - I'm getting off fairly lightly with an arthritic knee. This part of the garden is kept very well groomed and maybe it will inspire me to do some tidying in the yard.

Three dogs just descended on my office with a gush of fresh air around them and the scent of baldcypress - they have been wrestling out in the yard. I have to scoop and then run the mower to mulch a whole bunch of leaves out there.

There is a juniper in the corner of the front yard that now has the holiday lights on it and last night I turned it on for a while as a landmark for a friend who was coming over to the house for the first time. The strings that go across the front porch will go up today. Not much involved in these two zones of light, but they add a little festivity to this end of the street.

I've pushed a couple of big tasks off of my desk and now I can resume stuff I need to do around here that has waited for my attention. Back to eBay, for starters, and to do some mending and cooking and . . . when there are warmer days, yard work. The fence needs an extension. There's always something to do.