We’re halfway through the month of November and we’re still raking leaves. Although we try to keep them off our sidewalk, street gutters, front steps, and so-called lawn, many are left on our garden beds to benefit the wildlife.

According to the Xerces Society, swallowtail butterflies disguise their cocoons and chrysalises as “dried leaves,” blending in with “real” leaves, while some bees rely on leaf litter for winter protection.

I’m amazed when I think back to when I was a youngster and it seemed like the whole neighborhood burned their fallen leaves in the autumn!

One thing about the leaves being almost all gone is that we can now see the squirrel nests high up in the neighboring trees. No wonder we have so many of those rascals running around. Of course, they are also eating any remaining Kousa dogwood berries.

One amazing appearance was that of a huge spider web, the largest I’ve ever seen. It stretched from the dogwood tree outside our kitchen window to the electrical power line running from our house to the street pole. As it turns out, according to a recent “Old Farmer’s Almanac” notation, “Spiders spinning larger-than-usual webs is a sign of a cold winter to come.”

While on the subject, I recently read that “fake spider web” decorations (such as those used at Halloween) can kill birds. “It’s strong enough to snare an owl and takes a terrible toll every October on small birds.”

Since it’s now getting really cold, we’ve turned over the birdbaths for the winter so that they don’t crack and break. Outdoor furniture, hoses, and sprinklers have all been brought into our cellar. We’ll be trimming the dead foliage off the peonies, hostas and baptisia, but otherwise, plants like sedums will be left alone.

Indoors, we will check out our seed catalogs and see what’s new for next year. Someone mentioned purple tomatoes. Don’t know about that. Maybe our neglected indoor plants will get some loving.

So much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving, when we consider what’s going on in the world!