Trees

 

This is my eighth summer in this house. When I bought the place there were no trees in the yard. Not in the back, not in the front. No shrubs, no flowers, just grass and a chain link fence. The dogs loved the wide open spaces, but I was not brought up that way. My mom and dad filled our muddy yard in the summer of 1950 with trees and bushes. Five apple trees, two or three... maybe four elm trees. A dogwood tree, poplar trees, and rows of lilac bushes. The trees grew as I grew and before long we were living in a little forested yard. Oh, and the weeping willow tree. We had one of those too, which was fun to climb but full of bugs. So starting in 2016, the first summer here in this house, I started to plant trees and shrubs. Not as many as my mom and dad planted, but enough to already give us shade in the backyard. Out front, the maple tree is as tall as the building and the Japanese maple has filled out nicely. The thing is that trees attract birds. We get a lot of birds hanging around now. So many that Scout doesn't even chase them anymore. Squirrels yes, but not the birds. As much as I love the birds and the trees there is only one drawback. That's what the umbrella is for. It usually catches most of it.