The Tree Next Door, Part 2

During the winter I wrote a blog about the tree that lives in my neighbor’s yard. It is an amazing tree and in all the time I have lived here I have never stopped being fascinated by it. It is now getting green so I figured it was time to take more photographs. Chronicling the life cycle of that tree is an interesting hobby.

The leaves were sparse at first but then, during our recent monsoon, they just grew and grew and grew. Yesterday I walked over and stood under the tree shooting up into it. You can see in the photos how the branches wrap around and around themselves. If you stand at the center of the tree and look straight up it is rather like standing at the base of the circular staircase in a lighthouse and looking up. The branches seem to wrap round and round and up and up forever.

Right now there is an abundance of peculiar, lemon-yellow “ruffles” growing in great clumps between the darker, denser leaves. I thought at first that these were baby leaves but if you look at the long shot of the tree you can see that they are bleached white when the sun hits them and then gradually turn brown. I’ll have to keep an eye on them this year to see what they are up to.

But it is a magnificent tree — even if no one knows what it is. While I was standing in Sandy’s yard taking pictures a woman passed by on the street and said, “Isn’t that a great tree?” I agreed with her. In a way, it warms my heart to know how many people pay attention to that tree and remark on its beauty.

I’ve had a lot of great trees in my life. When I was very little we lived in my Grandmother Valentine’s house on Chestnut Street. There was a crabapple tree in the side lawn which I loved — mostly because it bloomed the most wonderful shade of bright pink in the spring. Some of the earliest photos I have of myself are taken of me up in that tree. My Gram Werner had a lot of wonderful trees in her yard. There was a pear tree that produced the most delicious, large juicy pears every year. There was also a huge, very tall pine tree. It was the sort that had branches starting several feet up on the tree but that drooped down to the ground, forming a tent that my brother and I could crawl under to read comic books on hot days.

Both of my grandmothers had great yards for kids with gardens and fruit trees and brambles made of berry bushes and roses. Things like that are good for kids. I spent many hours under the grape arbor in my grandmother’s yard reading and snitching Concord grapes — still about my favorite treat. I loved to pop them in my mouth, roll them around, bite them so the inside squished out and trickled down my throat and then play with the skin with my tongue. Who ever thought a grape could be so entertaining but when you are eight everything is amazing, I guess.

One of the things I love most about this time of year is that the early morning sun fills the little back room here where I write and work. It is filtered through the trees that line the cemetery out back and on days like this, when the breezes are hearty, there is the constant play of light on the walls as the leaves dance in the breeze. When I lived in Houston, there was a pool in the courtyard of my apartment and light reflecting off the water danced on my ceiling all day. Such simple things — light and water and trees and grapes can change the your mood and make a day more interesting.

So the tree next door is busy soaking up sunlight and I have work to do.

Thanks for reading.