Leave(s)!

I have been fortunate to live in several states, so I have some basis for comparison. I grew up in Michigan, spent a few years in northern Virginia, almost a decade in Florida, eventually moving back to my home state. They all have their good points. One state has more bad points than good, but I’ll leave that for another rant. 😉

Hands down, the thing I love the most about where I live now are the trees.

I love trees. Several weeks ago, I told the story about how my parents bought the house I would eventually grow up in. Trees played a big part in that story. The house sat at the edge of a big forest that stretched for several miles. I spent a good deal of my childhood exploring its depths, collecting different mosses and ferns, trying to identify them using old field books. Yes, folks this is what kids did before video games and the Internet 😂 I also spent a LOT of time raking in the fall.

Today, I live fairly close to my childhood home, just a town away, a fifteen minute drive. While there is no large expanse of woods behind my house, there is a fairly robust treeline that blocks out our backyard neighbors handily in the summer. We almost forget about them until the leaves drop in the fall.

We also have several lovely mature trees in our yard, including “Old Man.” He is the mighty oak my husband and I married beneath on Halloween, 2020. Then there is the jewel of the yard, a horse chestnut tree that produces large cone shaped flowers in the spring. In late April/early May, it is a beautiful sight to behold.