So Now I Know...

One of the things I love about where we live is that we have a nice balcony that lets us sit and enjoy the greenery of our complex. Unfortunately, we don’t take advantage of it like we should, since it’s kind of a pain in the butt to clean. I feel a little bad sweeping it because of our neighbors downstairs, and I really can’t take a hose to it because of the same issue.

Compounding the problem are the palm trees that are level with our balcony and hang over it. These palms produce spores that end up all over our balcony, table, chairs, and grill. Up until today, I though the debris and spores were from the wind blowing them over the deck. Possibly… but now I have a feeling that there might be another cause.

I was sitting at our dining table this morning when I heard a leaf blower start up outside. We’d just put Danica down to take a nap, so I was a little perturbed, but what can you do? Then, I hear it getting louder and some clunking above my head. I look out the sliding glass doors, and what do I see? Leaves, branches, and pine needles coming down off our roof to land on our deck, while the wind from the leaf blower is tossing the palm leaves (covered in spores) around like they were in a hurricane.

So now I know. Great. To the gardener’s credit (and to his detriment), he ended up holding onto the side of our balcony blowing what he could off of it, but it mostly ended up stuck on one side. Oy. Oh well, at least I live in Southern California. And I’m not going to feel guilty about sweeping all the crap off my deck, even if some of it does land below us. Is that bad?