Mother Nature always wins

We've been working away at keeping our cabin fire safe---a little tree work from time to time, and most importantly cleaning up the leaves and debris on the ground, off the roof, and out of the rain gutters, all in line with the guidelines from Cal Fire and our local fire department.

So it was that this last weekend was a work weekend for us, as we raked leaves and burnt piles of leaves and pine needles for hours on end. It doesn't seem like hard work unless you only do it a few weeks of the year...and then you do it for eight hours at a stretch.

Still, we went to bed Sunday night well satisfied with a job well done. The place was spotless---or at least, leafless--and We could leave it knowing that we had things under control.

And then we woke up at 2 a.m. on Monday morning with howling winds. Noises in the air--the splat and rattle of things falling from the trees. And when we got up in the morning light, our deck looked like this.

In the background, over the gently whisper of the wine, we could hear Mother Nature laughing at us....