I am not really sure why I found myself in this situation today. I mean, I know I didn’t rake up all the leaves last fall, but I don’t know why.  Perhaps, I got lazy.  Perhaps, I was busy.  For all I know, there might have been an early snowfall that scuttled my plans for one final assault on the leaves.  I know I raked up some of them because I usually need about five to 8 bags of them, so today’s one really doesn’t represent all of them.

You’re now probably wondering why or how this could possibly be Today’s Perfect Moment. It should be obvious.  It is (or was depending on when you read this) a beautiful day outside.  It seems as if Spring has broken the grip Winter had held onto so tenaciously–I mean, it snowed here on Thursday.

Yes, yard work is a chore, but it is one I haven’t done since Autumn. If I had to choose between shovelling snow and raking leaves…..raking leaves.  Also, it gave me time to contemplate lots of things that were rattling around in my brain.  On top of that, it provided a subject for today’s blog.

A small aside: Did you know that for almost all of the different nationalities I teach, the word nostalgia is the same.  It isn’t pronounced the same.  The g is either pronounced /ʤ/ or /j/ and even sometimes /h/.  Don’t even get me started on the stress and intonation.

While I was raking leaves, I flashed back to a memory of my childhood and the family cottage–long since sold and now probably worth the equivalent of a big house in Toronto or Vancouver.  My father had piled up all the leaves and my siblings, cousins and I were taking turns jumping into it with reckless abandon.  Though this probably caused my father to have to rake them over again, I don’t recall him minding.