The slope of the Mount is picturesque, with its rustic stone wall recalling former uses.
Not so the top, where compost heaps release the heat of decomposition into the cooling air.
Yet, though many a fair tree lies there in bits, like all the dead, they serve what lives.
The mulch will be used to rebuild the eroding soil, to blanket roots against the Winter, and bed new flowers for a Spring beyond December's intuition.