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Our Tree |
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| FTLComm - Tisdale - Sunday, October 5, 2003 | ||||||
 No one will be complaining about the weather this weekend. We were into Regina and back yesterday and this morning I had a late breakfast, but by then it was already more than warm enough to eat outside on the deck. As we were coming back into the house from breakfast the golden glow of the tree that stands beside our back step was just to much to resist and I had to take a picture. This is a large Aspen, that towers over our block and right now could charged with littering. It heavy load of leaves are descending like giant yellow snowflakes on everything below. |
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 Above is the scene from the deck where we had breakfast and lunch today, looking out toward the street. But, towering over us is the now spent leaves of summer, their cycle over and the job as converters of carbon dioxide and water, using sunlight to create sugar to nourish the large tree. I often wonder at the magical cycle of energy production and this tree seems to me as the best example of the trees that are in the forests all around the world, each day making energy, building a water shed, filtering the contaminants from the air and most importantly producing the vital byproduct of their life process, oxygen. |
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 We moved into this yard in 1995 and for the first few years mowed off a tiny tree sapling in the corner. Now junior, long past the mowing stage is stretching upward steadily to assume the role of its parent. The big tree is nearing the end of its life, now about thirty-one years old and the little offspring in the back yard has already begun its life as the replacement. Seen up close these leaves that hang over the back step are still soft and feel alive but the gentlest of a pull on them and the release their hold on the branch and are free. One after another gravity and the light breeze pulls each one from its place and they make their short but deliberate journey to the growing pile on the ground. |
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 Well, some land on the ground but many were piling up on Judy's car and van today, covering the old weathered driveway and burying the lawn that is in need of mowing. Each year Judy seems to relish gathering these former leaves up into bags for disposal. This past fall we dumped them by the wheel barrow full onto the garden and put them to work providing some humus to the clay soil that can dry to a brick hard surface. Below we are looking skyward toward the North in front of the house and as we look higher the wind has had a greater effect on |
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 leaves pulling them off in greater numbers leaving the branches and stems naked, the way they will have to face the long cold winter ahead. Looking South down the block several elm trees are just starting to turn from their green to a light yellow, while at the end of the street there are a couple of small trees that are devoid of their foliage and the home owner has already raked up the fall-out. In a few days this tree will have let them all go and will stand empty for almost six months until buds once more come out and the leaves of 2004 appear. |
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