It’s alive! (a true story)
We have a little maple tree in our back yard. It wasn’t there when we moved in and we didn’t plant it - it just sprouted spontaneously (its likely parentage is the tree next door). I first noticed it about three years ago when I was cutting the grass. At first I thought it was a weed, but on closer inspection I saw it was a tiny six inch maple sapling. Impressed by its tenacity, I let it be, and cut around it for the rest of the summer. It thrived, and by last year it was nearly six feet tall. In fact, it was growing so well that it became evident that in the not-too-distant future it could threaten the back fence. So, we decided that it was necessary to move it a few feet inward, and that we should do so soon, while the tree was still small enough to easily manipulate. The transplantation was done last June, and although we followed all of the botanical advice, the tree didn’t fare well. Apparently trees can suffer from “shock" just like humans. Within a couple of weeks, it had lost all of its leaves. Our poor little tree was to all appearances dead, but we continued to care for it - we pruned it back and gave tree growth stuff and lots of TLC. By the end of the summer it had recovered somewhat, and had even sprouted a couple of tentative new leaves.
We were of course concerned about how it would survive the winter. In recent weeks, most other trees in our area have been starting to show their first spring foliage, but not our little maple tree. On this past Sunday we examined it closely for any signs of life and weren’t greatly encouraged. So, you can imagine my surprise when yesterday, only one day later, I looked out our library window to see this:
Astounded, I ran down the stairs and into the back yard to get a better look, and saw this:
Faux leaves had been tied to the bare branches!
Evidently sometimes Mother Nature needs a helping hand...
Epilogue:
When I showed the tree and its amazing magic leaves to my Sweetie she expressed wide-eyed innocence, but on reflection she wasn’t totally convincing. Now I’m beginning to doubt the veracity of Santa and the Easter Bunny, too.