new england traditions: fallen foliage

Everyone likes leaf-peeping in New England. "Oooh, pretty fall foliage," etcetera. But here is the thing: that fall foliage falls off the trees living one big mess. We have sort of perfected the fine art of procrastination when it comes to leaf collection (much to our neighbors' dismay).

We basically rake our leaves once a year. It seems sort of futile to do it any more than that, what with all the maple trees in our yard. In any case, the one time a year we actually do it, it's pretty fun (I suppose it's easy to say that when you are not the one doing the leaf collecting; but, there you are). The Pup was very excited to rake up leaves (or pretend to).

But he was even more excited to play in the piles.

A couple more leaf shots in flickr, because, you know, that is what we do.

a boy and a train

So it's that time of the year in Connecticut. The time of year when Thomas the Tank Engine comes to town--or close to town. We wandered over to Essex, Connecticut for a day with the smling train.


While the parental units debated the charm factor of the train on an older and wiser Seal Pup--he had so much fun last year, would it be the same this time? Better? A bust?), the pup relished in the day's activities.

Proving that we, indeed, truly don't know anything.

Leave it to the tot to school the 'rents.

More pictures from the day are in flickr, of course.

Next up...raking up dead leaves. A New England tradition.