Leaf Crunching.

I have this weird quirk; I love to crunch leaves by stepping on them. I adore this, actually. I've always enjoyed said act. Luckily, we live on a prime leaf-stomping street.
Those are sycamore trees. They're awesome; the size is impressive, they can provide nice shade in hot weather {not that it ever graces us with it's presence} and the best/crunchiest leaves rain down on us.

The leaves start to bud in late April. I drive home everyday and when I turn into the street at this time of year, I start furiously looking up when I round the corner. When the buds finally make their appearance the trees develop this beautiful, ethereal if you will, light green hue. It's hard to focus on any of the baby leaves since they're so high up there which causes the trees to look as though they're glowing light neon green. I love that.

The leaves then become a BEAUTIFUL rich almost Kelly green in late May and early June. Then our California sun takes it's toll and the leaves begin to brown ever so slightly. Around this time of year, the weird little mummified leaves start to fall. I'm not quite sure what it is; it could be a mold and I annually rejoice over something that's bad for these trees. Whatever it is, though, it makes the leaves delightfully "crunchy". With these crunchers, it's extremely satisfying to step down on one. I can feel the give and the sound is nicely crackly. I think this is weird behavior but I'm willing to come out of this closet, so to speak; maybe there are others like me out in the world.
Here's what the funny whitey stage looks like.

And here's the act itself.

The pathetic thing, I readily admit, is that I've injured myself in my endeavor. I was running and took an errant step in an effort to "get a leaf"; I landed funny and rolled my ankle. It wasn't severe by any means but it was enough to make me think about how stupid it would be to get really hurt this way.
But it certainly didn't stop me.
xoxo, natty ♥