A Lacy World

2/5/2014

When I woke up this morning and looked out my bedroom window, I saw that Mother Nature visited us last night.  She covered all the trees with a thin layer of ice, resembling lace.  The trees are beautiful to look at and once again I marvel at our ever changing weather.

Mother Nature (because we have to have someone to blame) can and has wrecked havoc around the world with hurricanes, earthquakes and typhoons.  There is nothing pretty about occurrences like this and the damage is generally extensive and devastating. 

But there is a softer side to Mother, when gentle spring rains fall lightly on our grass just waking up from it's winter slumber and the buds of tulips and other spring flowers begin poking through the ground.  

When we moved here in 1986 from California, our boys had never seen a robin, a dogwood tree or the majestic beauty of tall oak and elm trees.  California is known best for palm and fruit trees.  Palm trees line the streets and most neighborhoods.  When the fronds die, they turn brown and have to be cut off the tree which requires special attention to avoid the sharp edges of the fronds.

They had also never seen much snow, unless we took them up to the mountains occasionally during winter.  So when our first winter arrived after moving to Maryland, the boys were thrilled.  Jeff and I less so.  They were young enough to want to get bundled up, build snowmen and have snowball fights.

As they got older, we had enough snow shovels for each boys' hands!  There is an advantage to having sons - they can carry firewood, shovel snow, make holes for planting trees and shrubs, and mowing lawns.  Basically, I didn't have to get involved with outside work.  My job in the winter was to have a fire going, and hot chocolate (w/marshmallows) waiting for my cold and tired sons.

Luckily for us is that the ice we got last night was not heavy.  In our backyard we have an entire row of Leland Cypress trees that after 20 years are quite tall and top heavy.  These trees also have shallow roots.  With heavy ice or snow, we stand a chance of losing branches due to the weight on the branches.

For now I sit in my favorite chair, drink coffee and enjoy the views from my window.  No longer do I need to call the phone number at work to see if the building was closed or delaying opening. I guess that's a small advantage of being retired.

P