Our prevailing winds are from the west and northwest, right from the North Atlantic. So when a weather front hits southern Europe, it usually hits here first. Those fronts often mean rain but one time we even got some snow.

Every once in a while, though, when the high/low pressure areas are in the right places, our winds come from the east or northeast. More often than not, that brings us dry, sunny weather and, if the winds are strong enough, they blow a lot of debris into the yard from the eucalyptus trees around us. The debris is leaves plus a lot of bark, which comes off the trees in long, narrow strips like those shown in the pictures above. We recently had hundreds of pieces of bark all over our yard and it looked like it would be a real chore to clean 'em up. But it wasn't.

The bark is thin, light and brittle so all we had to do is vacuum it up with the mower, which chops it up and bags it like it does grass. There's very little that has to be picked up by hand. (The pieces in the upper righthand picture were in an area where the mower wouldn't fit.)

Tip: Wet uke leaves leave dark brown stains on pavement. You can easily remove them with diluted bleach.