ODE TO TREE

When we first moved into this house, there was a beautiful, leafy tree in our front yard {See picture of our house on sidebar -->} . I liked having the shade, a pretty view, and a place to hang my bird feeder where I could watch it from the window. But strangely, that next summer, leaves on half of it decided not to grow. And another summer later: not a single leaf. Our tree was dead.

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It got to the point that every time a heavy windstorm ripped through this valley (not an uncommon occurrence around here), we had to move our vehicles from the driveway so falling branches wouldn't crush them. We finally saw that it was time to say farewell to our tree.

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Ironically, the same day it was cut down, we were dragging a Christmas tree into the living room. It was surprisingly sad to look out that window, to see...nothing. And we had big plans for that tree! Christmas lights were eventually going to be wrapped around the trunk. I was going to read in its shade over the summer. And I have no idea where to put this bird feeder now.

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But do you wanna hear the really sad part? We'll still have to rake leaves in the fall. Our neighbors across the street, have what I believe to be, the largest tree in the state of Idaho. And for some unknown reason, the leaves don't ever land in their yard. Every single blasted one, after dancing in the autumn breeze, lands softly on our lawn. Does anyone have a GIANT fan we can borrow?

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