Seattle winters live up to their reputation: days and days of epic rain. What I never really appreciated though, until this last year when I started gardening, is that there are also some pretty incredible sun breaks. When the sun comes out after a big rain it can feel positively balmy—especially when I'm running around doing lots of sweeping and raking. (As you can see from the state of my potting bench, I haven't been doing much of that in the backyard.) There are two reasons why I haven't attended to the leaves. Firstly, because the giant birch that dominates the area still has hundreds (thousands?) more little yellow leaves to drop. Given how labor-intensive these are to clean up, it seems smarter to just do it once after the branches are completely bare. Secondly: I think the golden ground cover is gorgeous. Especially on a sunny afternoon like today.