Spring Comes to Portland

Scott has been mowing the lawn since late January (not constantly, but once a week). The plum trees bloomed a lovely pink early in March. The forsythia was a glorious yellow, along with the scotch broom at the coast. The grand cherry tree in the back yard looks like a big white cloud and the rhododendrons in the front yard are covered in softballs of white flowers. And our neighbors, several of them, have thirty year old dogwoods that are blooming sweet coral pink flowers that lift their faces to the sky. It’s spring in Portland.

Scott has been worried about the paperbark maple we planted last year. After mom died my great Aunt Nancy and the garden club, mom’s friends from Prospect Heights, sent money for the specific purpose that we plant a tree in the yard for mom. So Scott has been worried that the tree hadn’t yet leafed out. Most of the trees in the neighborhood are in bloom or have leaves, but our slow little paperbark maple had only sad little brown buds that hadn’t swelled.

Yesterday Scott pulled me outside after work to look at the tree. This week it’s been warm in Portland, sunny and eighty degrees. It won’t last long, the cool rains return on Friday. But the warmth was enough to spur the paperbark maple into action. Over the last three days those little brown buds have grown and turned green. Scott mused that by next week the tree would be full of leaves. I came home tonight and inspected the tree (yes, we do that) and the very first leaves have arrived at the top of the tree. 

You can expect more tree updates in coming blogs, but our next blog will fill you in on what we’ve been up to in the last three months.