Our Tree

Sensitivity and emotionalism are the lead characteristics of this blogger. I'm probably not alone. I've read about other women who cry when they see a cute puppy or new born baby. But what what is it about a tree that would make a sane woman cry? I do get upset when I see our wild birds die. I don't like it when the neighbor's cat comes to our yard to hunt for it's daily meal. I've been sensitive as long as I can remember but today at my age, I get more choked up and can't seem to revive from the anguish.

We have a beautiful Ash tree in our front yard. It's been there since we moved here. I have admired it because of it's perfect oval formation. It was never trimmed but grew evenly on all sides, that is it's characteristics.

Every spring we are visited by a crowd of Grackles groupies. These black birds come here to our neighborhood to mate. Since we have more trees than our neighbors, the loud and domineering birds seemed to center their activities around our yard and in our trees. For some reason, in recent years the numbers have decreased. In prior years, I wore a hard hat out to the curb to get the mail because the birds were so aggressive they swooped down towards anyone walking out in the front. I will give them credit for their creativity because they are the best nesting material hunters I've ever seen. They seemed to prefer the Ash tree for nesting rather than the other variety of trees in the front yard because you can see orange, pink, white and other colors of yarn and cord wrapped around the limbs and branches, dangling and flowing and blowing in the breeze. They make their annual appearance right around the time the spring flowers have passed and the remnants of the long green leaves have turned into the brown long tapered leaves still laying on the ground. The birds do a thorough job of cleaning out the flowerbed of dead debris from the spring flowers, using what they find for their nests. They will be here in a couple of weeks or maybe later since our spring flowers are still in their prime.

We thought for sure we'd have to have our tree cut down since it was looking puny. One tree man said it had a disease (without testing it) and would need to be cut down. Thankfully, he didn't follow through with his promise to get back to us with an estimate. I would have gotten two or more opinions anyhow before following through with any drastic action. Today another treeman came. He looked the tree over and gave the opinion our tree had frost bite and there was the snow this year and last. I do remember last year and this year we did have low morning temperatures in the 20s. Boy, was that diagnosis a relief. We'll get by easy with only a deep root fertilizing and some thinning and should do the trick. I am very thankful we could save our pretty tree.

Bob put some fake squirrels around on the branches and I hang pretty swirly thingies on low branch too. The kids walking to school and playing in the neighborhood check out the stuff or stop to watch the thingies blowing in the breeze. And, I enjoy watching the kids. Also, the beautiful Ash is one of the trees that get a yellow ribbon tied around it when Soldier Tom is on coming home. It's close to the front gate and the street, so we sometimes hang the American flag.

I am happy. No crying today - we've saved our tree.