My Cool Tree

I have a very cool tree in my front yard, as you can see. It's a Japanese Maple. The picture was taken about a month ago, in its resplendent prime. Now all the leaves have fallen off and are lying on the ground mocking me for not raking them(I hate raking leaves!).

Having lived here in this house since 1996, I'm seeing the changes on my tree for the 13th time. At this point of course, the leaves are gone until next Spring- March, April, in there-when it'll blossom back into a nice lush green. And I'll have a nice green tree until late September, when they turn back into the beautiful red and orange I've just been enjoying. Wish I could fast-forward things to that point, but as earthbound creatures subject to the constraints of time and space, we have to follow each of these cycles through all their phases consecutively, which means, unfortunately, Winter is up next.

Well at least Winter is usually only 3 or 3-and-change months out of the year, and even then usually not of uniform severity. We might just get our January Thaw this coming year. And in March or April of 2010 will be back in bloom.

Thank goodness there are some things in life you can count on. Like my tree.