Progress in my garden

I love the fog when I don't have to drive in it. This morning I got outside into the foggy morning before it disappeared. Pleasant. I am making a lot of progress shifting the surplus of leaves in the front of my house to the back for leaf paths through the garden. I am close to eliminating all the grass and hopefully their won't be any areas I need to mow this summer. Still have a lot to do but in addition to moving leaves from front to back, I have also spread a fair amount of compost throughout the cultivated part of my garden and I have cut back most of the dead stalks. I'm alternating what I do so I don't hurt myself. The easy part is getting the leaves moved. Pulling up weeds and such is harder on me physically but as long as I alternate what I do, I think I'll get it done. I used to worry about having leaf pathways on the hilly part to the side of my garden areas because I was afraid that I would slip on wet leaves. Bill got me an aluminum walking stick which should do the trick and prevent me from falling if I remember to use it. I think he gave it to me more with our mountain hiking excursions in mind but it's perfect for walking up my garden hill when it's wet. I'm not sure why I'm enjoying my garden so much this year. Usually this time of the year all I can see is how barren everything is, combined with all the dead weeds I didn't get around to pulling up. I've always loved early and mid winter but late winter has been the least appealing time for me. In the past late spring and early summer, when lots of flowers were in bloom, was when I was able to overlook all that hadn't been done yet because there was so much going on in the garden to out show the mess. But this year I'm enjoying my garden right now. There is a lot to be done but it doesn't bother me. I'm even enjoying my neighborhood walks more than I used to this time of year. In the past, late winter has always been when my neighborhood has seemed the least attractive because the tree umbrella is bare limbs, and the houses are more exposed losing the softer look when there is more foliage. However, this year everything is softer and more appealing to me and I'm not sure why. I've always loved bare winter trees on a hill in the country or winter time in the forest, but in general the winter trees haven't provided enough protection from the boring qualities of houses built on about 4 plans, which is what my subdivision has. This year everything looks better to me. Very strange. I can't believe how the flicker is blending into the wood of the pecan tree it's peck, peck, pecking in. It's such a destinctive bird and I was sure it would stand out more in the photograph. I guess I'm destined to keep taking, find the bird in the picture photos.