The leaves are gone, the house is naked

For me, one of the things that makes this house are the two huge maple trees out front. Yes, they take up the entire front yard and make it pretty hard for anything else to grow. Yes, they mean a lot of leaves to be raked in the fall...and YES I have visions of a freak tornado tearing through the area and sending the trees crashing down onto the house. But otherwise, they are amazing and bring some life to the place! I think the yard would look odd without them.

But now it is November 9th, the leaves are long gone and the trees are naked! The house feels naked - but it allows more light in - which is a good thing, since the house has a tendency of being a bit dark (there are windows in every room, but not huge windows, and the front porch does block out some light).