Surely, A Wise Old Owl Must Live Here

Gnarly old tree, waiting for spring... Williamsburg, VA
(Click pictures to enlarge)

"Old trees in their living state are the only things that money cannot command." ~ Walter Savage Landor

I really meant to get this gnarly tree posted before Carmi changed his theme... but it works out fine as this tree looks as if it would love to say "good-bye" to winter. Trees with a perfect upright growth and perfectly shaped limbs are beautiful but sometimes boring; this tree, however conjures up so many different thoughts. It is old, possibly growing here when Colonial Williamsburg was founded. Surely it has seen George Washington walking these streets and Thomas Jefferson as well as others through the years. What trauma produced the distortion of the trunk and the twisted nodes hanging from the main branches; and that split in the trunk at its base.. if only this tree could talk, the inside information it must have about our forefathers.

Here icicles are usually not much.... this is as good as it gets.

"Winter giveth the fields, and the trees so old, their beards of icicles and snow." ~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Yesterday it was 93 degrees here... same today.... it is only April isn't it? When it is this hot, it is hard to think about the snow and ice from just two months ago. This icicle is long gone and winter with it; we seem to have skipped Spring and headed straight into Summer. I have planted daylily, butterfly weed, a butterfly bush and seeds for black-eyed Susans, blanket flowers, hollyhocks and columbine. I have transplanted azaleas from the front to the back yard and have put in hydrangeas in the front flowerbed. I've been watching my shade garden peek up through the winter mulch with hosta, columbine, astilbe, fern and a really gorgeous purple and green hydrangea really starting to get going. So far I have thirteen different rosebushes in the rose garden and my roses in the front are about to bloom... I'd say in the next three weeks or so. The new rose garden will take about two to three years to really fill in and I am anxious.. especially about one variety called "Honey Dijon". Yes, a mustard yellow-tan bloom with exceptionally strong spicy scent! Can't wait! But I'll have to anyway.

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