Lady Bug Rescue.

Most people clear their lawns of leaves each fall without fail. My neighbours are out there with rakes and other tools, making a real project out of it. They are all keen to get at it. Those piles of leaves are carted away before you know it. Except at my place, it doesn't quite ever happen that way.

I never quite seem to get to it. I am not sure if its because I am nostalgic or what. It has been a long time since we all raked the leaves up into big piles and burned them. I fondly remember those chilly fall nights hazy with leave smoke as we walked home.

I'm not really sure why I never get to it. Leaf blower exhaust and piles of orange bags just doesn't quite do it for me besides, it it is too damn cold and I have other things to do.

So I leave it for the spring.

This weekend I got to it. I have been raking up all of last years leaves that haven't cooperated and blown onto my neighbours lawns. I'm having fun. It is good to get the fresh air after a cold winter and it gets me an early jump on my tan.

What I always forget about are the lady bugs. I have never lived anywhere where lady bugs seem to thrive quite the way they do here. There are thousands living in those piles of leaves. I had been gathering the leaves up and dumping them in the dumpster in the alley when I notices that hundreds of lady bugs were climbing out of the leaves and were crawling around the top layer.

I just couldn't send lady bugs to the dump. That was what prompted the rescue. We gently gathered them up by the hundreds and put them back in bushes, the garden and what leaves were left. We made several trips.

So I am not a slacker after all. What I am actually doing by not getting to all this in the fall is creating lady bug habitat. Who knew I was so "green".