Well, maybe. Right now it is very gray and very wet and very cold. There is even some snow now and then. Depite all of this the buds on the maple tree are swelling in praparation for flowering. I can wait. I can enjoy seeing them in their beginning redness. They will get more red before they burst open and fall. They will be so red that they will once again stain the front steps and porch. And that's okay because last summer's sun and winter's snows have bleached last spring's red stains away.
I am so lucky to have this tree in the front yard. I have been watching it and enjoying its every season for forty seven years. I love this tree. This fall we had the tree guy come in and trim it out and put in bracing cables. There are four cables to enable the tree to withstand the severe winds that we have had. Cannot imagine what would have happened had the cables not been in place. This tree is perhaps the most consistent thing in my life. Part of God's creation. I love this tree.
