Bradford Pear Trees

My elementary school art teacher, Mr. Schweder, 

once admonished me for drawing a tree 

with a perfect circle of green "leaves" atop a straight trunk.

He called it a lollipop tree,

then demonstrated with his pencil how tree branches really grew.

Obviously, Mr. Schweder never saw a Bradford Pear tree.

home.howstuffworks.com

If ever there were a lollipop tree, the Bradford Pear is it.

It is planted in profusion here in the Shire

even though its fragility in a wind storm is legendary.

I guess the beauty of its spring blossoms 

makes it worth the risk.

As Edna St. Vincent Millay might have said:

. . . it may not last the night, 

but ah my foes, and oh, my friends, 

it gives a lovely light.

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Redbud Trees in Spring

If you follow this blog,

then  you know that the two redbud trees

outside the garage door

got their start as tiny seedlings gleened from the flower beds

around my mother-in-law's house.

 

In 11 years, those tiny sprouts have  grown tall enough to be visible

through a second floor window.

Two years ago, they bloomed right on March 15th.

Last year, just a little later.

This year: April 2nd.

 

Photo:  deborahsilver.com

 

I walked into the room this morning

and noticed the view through the window:

redbud branches pinked and purpled with blossoms.

Even after all these years,

my heart skips a little beat

when I see redbud trees in the spring.

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April Fools

Fortunately nature doesn't play April Fools pranks,

 so today was a nearly perfect April day.

Sunshine, blue skies, and flowering trees made everything feel new,

like the earth had just shaken off a very long, deep sleep.

Kuekenhof Gardens in the Netherlands.  viator.com

In one of his sonnets, Shakespeare wrote:

“April hath put a spirit of youth in everything.

No fooling.

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