Tree Stories

It was a tree themed day today. I started out with a shot of the lone oak that we pass every day on our walk. I blipped it on Jan 18th when it was completely bare of leaves. Perhaps I'll call it my winter shot. Today the new leaves are bursting out on all but the branches which are clearly dead. I love the shape of these gnarly trees. So this is the Spring shot.

When we got back from our walk the guys were here mowing our impossibly steep lawn. John pointed out a palm tree outside our living room window and said we would like to remove it. (All we can see from our living room window is a skinny, scabrous trunk--it sports a silly little tuft of fronds at the top, above our roofline.) Without further ado, they gave it a good hard push and lifted the shallow roots right our of the ground, hauled it out to their truck and took it off to a better, more appreciative home. They probably think we're crazy, but they always seem to have a more deserving home for our rejects.

The tree removal provided the impetus for us to visit the Urban Tree Farm, which we've been meaning to do for at least a year. It's a huge, 20 acre property full of big trees in big pots. When we told the guy there that we wanted something "dramatic" and "different" from all the tropical and desert plants in our garden, he got all excited, ushered us out to his golf cart, and drove us around all twenty acres showing us possibilities. We ran out of time because we had to pick up OilMan's car from the shop before it closed, but we look forward to going back in the morning.

On the way home, I got a phone call from our neighbor who had dinner with us on Friday night, and is now in Cleveland with her husband who is awaiting heart surgery there. The contractor had started painting their house and she was panicking because she was afraid he might not have gotten the color right.. She is a landscape designer and had gone to some pains to choose a color that would "blend in" with the trees on the hillside around the house. The very same oak trees as I began with here. We walked up there, took some pictures and finally called her because we could barely tell the difference between the old paint color and the new. Discussing such abstract and subjective things as paint colors and whether they blend in is difficult over the phone, particularly with someone I don't know too well, but I hope I convinced her that I thought her choice looked very nice--she has more important things to worry about....