Spring Time Cleaning

Spring is the time for cleaning. In China, this means cleaning up all the flower beds and raking the leaves. While I have always thought to clean up the leaves during the fall, the workers here wait until the warm weather of the spring. They carefully rake all the leaves, including those in the bushes, under the shrubs, and pile them into large piles.

Then the pile is lit on fire, a slow smoldering fire that takes care of the leaves in about a day. One weekend we were left with the choice of opening our windows for a breeze and inviting the smoke into our apartment, or leaving the window closed and smoldering ourselves in the heat inside.

I do say the flower beds and gardens look much better now without all the leaves, but I could have done without all the smoke. It's spring here and there's no room for any complaining. Get outside and enjoy the day!