Well, it’s springtime again, and around here that always means having to pick up a ton of sycamore branches before the first mowing of the season can take place. Lots of the gnarled branches fall to the ground every winter, but the gale-force winds and heavy snows we had this year left a lot more of them than usual littering our yard.
As anyone with a sycamore in his/her yard will tell you, they are beautiful trees with distinctive bark and huge, plate-sized leaves. But they will also tell you that they sure can make a mess as their brittle branches break off and fall to the ground.
The better part of this afternoon was spent picking up and hauling off this year’s “crop” of sycamore branches, and now it’s time to begin the seemingly endless cycle of mowing three acres of grass once a week until autumn. It’s all fun and games until the branches start falling again – which will likely be during the very next thunderstorm.
Here it’s pines, not quite as bad.