Old Man Tree: May 1

I’ve been using Mondays to celebrate the blooms in my front yard flowerbed.  All year, I’ve set aside the first day of the month for pictures of and reflections about Old Man Tree, the stately red oak in my back yard.  Today’s May Day and it seems fitting to celebrate both my tree and my blooming flowers.  All of the tulips have emerged in the front yard flowerbed.  They are as lovely as I imagined they would be when I planted the bulbs last fall.

Now that they’ve bloomed, I’ll call an end to my flowerbed Monday postings.  Instead, I’ll turn my lens toward something else in my verdant yard.  This past month, T and I girdled the ivy creeping up the side of Old Man Tree and the ivy is finally looking raggedy.  In the coming weeks, I’ll pull as much of it down as I can.  

In the meantime, the back deck refurbishing is proceeding apace and I’m looking forward to some lazy summer days spent in a comfy chair on the back deck in the shade of Old Man Tree.  He’s doing his part to grow the leaves that will provide that shade.

On a daily basis, the view of my backyard brings me happiness and a sense of the glories of the season.  Old Man Tree is an enormous part of that enjoyment and I am thankful every day that he stands tall in my world.