Mutter mutter mutter

I've picked up a heck of a lot of crabapples in recent weeks. After Irene came by and knocked a lot of them off the tree at once, I went on a veritable jihad against grounded crabapples. They really create a nesting place for little flying things as well as becoming mussy and dangerously slippery underfoot if you aren't careful.

I've been using a neat little pooper scooper my father, may he rest in peace, designed in the '90s. So I rake them into big piles then 'scoop' them into the yardwaste bag. Unfortunately, I get too enthusiastic and end up with a bag that is overloaded, impossibly heavy. So I drag it along to where it is supposed to be for pickup.

The tree can be beautiful for a week or two in the spring, though. When it looks like this: