Microclimates

This is the day that 31 years ago my eldest daughter was due to be born :) She waited a week however, never having been one to take the first suggestion to get out of bed! Happy upcoming birthday, Courtney, my love!

This is a photo of a few Parrotia persica leaves on my front patio. The tree has lived in a whiskey barrel for 25 years and is happy to do so it seems. It was one of those gardening thoughts, "I'll just tuck this in here until I get a more suitable site ready", that turned into a permanent home. Truthfully, that is the axiom around which my yard is based :)

I think it is interesting (are you snoring yet?) that the P persica in my front patio is primarily yellow and green with only this lone fellow who rainbowed himself up for the photo while the P persica in the back yard has bedazzled itself in rubies and pink sapphires and citrines. And the Styrax japonica in this photo (smaller leaves in the background) is yellow while the larger one in the back yard is still green.

The front patio is sheltered (albeit overshadowed, sucked dry of all available moisture) by a venerable old Thuja plicata whose arms reach protectively outward and upward to keep us cool in the summer and warmer in the winter. My babies rode their teeny bikes around and around and around and around this patio when they were little and these amply spreading limbs have safeguarded us all the while. I have 4 of these massive Thuja's and I am grateful for each one. I guess they keep watch over the areas entrusted to them, softening the climate and escorting me towards a gentler winter.