of leaves and toads ...
and year three of our terrace permaculture experiment ...
which continues the verticalisation and internalization of our life-harmonizing journeying. [choice of s or z depending on which side of the 'water' you reside!] where you today find us once again bringing in wheel-barrel-loads of compost and mulch to reduce our summer weeding and irrigation requirements.
and, as you will note from the art-posterized image above, a modest (yuck) plastic irrigation line is about to go in ... which I hope is totally buried out of sight when it is fully working.
in addition to the Oak leaves seen in the middle terrace of the photo, we have added seven or eight thornless boysberries in one of the top terraces, which can grow up the fig trees and hillside ... added more gojiberries and perennial herbs ... and planted a white sapote, a jujube, a large guava and a stonefruit which are all being trained to grow sideways along the terrace walks for easy access for picking, and for shading of veggie areas. and, not incidentally, providing a living trellis for passion-fruit (cuttings now getting established in shaded pots) and other vines to grow up on and along!
all of this gentle frenzy witnessed by several yearling toads whom, of hundreds, survived this last year of snakes and crows and owls and hawks and herons uncountable ...
only to become (clearly) exasperated with us ...
for raining buckets of 'stickery' Oak leaves all around and over their, formally tidy, holes ...