Stubborn, Stubborn Tree

For awhile now -- since about the beginning of January, really -- I've been waiting for winter to wrap up and spring to arrive. For a few days last week, we had a ridiculously lovely stretch of weather that even found our family hanging out at the pool. But it was short-lived, as the weatherman predicted and as we all secretly knew it would be.

So I went back to charting the course of winter and the advent of spring my usual way: by watching the trees in my front yard. In the fall, the leaves turn colors (don't let anyone tell you that there's no fall color in California; it's just that you find it in individual trees). Then, as rain comes and the winds pick up, the leaves blow and swirl and end up all over the ground. For the record, this began happening more than a couple of months ago.

After the leaves fall, as we learned in kindergarten, the trees are bare for a stretch before bursting forth in the buds and blooms of spring. But this is where it gets confusing and a bit disconcerting for me.

MY DARN TREE STILL HAS LEAVES.





I started marveling at this about a month ago, after we endured a wicked set of storms over the course of a couple of weeks. I mean, these storms toppled trees that previously stood fifty feet tall. There's still carnage from one cypress covering a big chunk of my son's playground at school.

But this little amber (I think it's an amber) is stubbornly clinging to a bunch of its leaves. And its little pokey thingies.



Fortunately, it IS starting to sprout signs of new growth... which just adds to my confusion.



First that silly groundhog, and now this. I may just have to start listening to the weatherman.