meditations

How a landscape slut learned to say no

Usually I have trouble saying no to extra landscape work. That’s because I am a bit of a landscape slut. But sometimes it pays to say no. Take this past Saturday, for example.

Just as I arrived at home in mid-afternoon, my phone rang. A small private client of mine texted me about leaf removal from the front of his house. His front yard is covered in Norway maple leaves (Acer platanoides).  And he wanted me to come right away. Hmmm.

Saying ‘No’

I shook my head as I contemplated driving to see a client for maybe thirty minutes and making some spare cash.  Saying no is difficult for me.

But I can easily push jobs like these to another day. I had important things to do. One, I had to buy a hot glue gun for my daughter’s craft project. This required a quick trip to Dollarama.

And two, I had plans for a fartlek training run in a park close to my house.

Fartlek

So, that’s what I did. I changed, put my Salomon running shoes on and headed out. No music this time; just a brief stop so my Polar watch could establish satellite reading. Then I pressed record and I was good to go.

I absolutely love trails covered in leaves. It was a nice change from blowing them all week at work. On these trails big leaf maple and cottonwood leaves are left alone. I love running on them and looking at their colours.

Fartlek refers to an easy training run. I ran for 35 minutes with average heart rate of 147. I covered 5.34 km and burned 504 kcal.

 

 

Happy Happy

When you visit the same park in different seasons  you notice the seasonal changes. And Shoreline park is that place for me. In winter some of the cottonwoods came crashing down. Then, in summer they sent out their fluffy seeds that annoy most allergy sufferers. And now in the fall the salmon have returned to spawn and the leaves are sporting great fall colours.

Then, once I finished my run, I took my kids out to see the salmon in the creek. That and the run made it way more special than a small residential clean-up project. I’m glad I was able to say no.

 

 

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