Newsletter #137 - The Redbud (2024)
Is this tree a metaphor?
It’s that time of year again.
It’s the time of year I try to make a better photograph of the eastern redbud tree on my property than the one I made ten years ago.
I’ve written about this tree in the past. I’ve talked about how I am obsessed with it. How I would do anything for it.
But I can’t help it. Every year, I hopelessly work on it.
Maybe I’m thinking too hard about it. Could it be that the only reason the photograph on May 18, 2014 worked was because I didn’t really care that much?
Maybe it was because the tree was the perfect age at the time. It was in the prime of its life. It wasn’t too big or too small. The trees that sit around it were also smaller. They all gave each other a little space. They weren’t trying to crowd each other out.
Maybe it’s because the climate seems to have shifted a bit, so the buds sometimes arrive a little earlier, which makes it out of tune with the birch and tatarian maple trees it sits next to. It creates an uneven juxtaposition of spring blooms.
Maybe things are just better when they are younger, and no matter how hard you try, chasing that youthful high is futile because you know you will never really be that good again.
Wait… Is this tree me?
THROWBACK
Newsletter #87 - The Redbud 2021
Newsletter #41 - The Redbud
VIDEO
How to Prune an Eastern Redbud - May 2, 2024
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Julia Sforza thinks the hop-hornbeam is underrated.
Zach Vitale’s favorite tree is the flowering dogwood.
Seth Werkheiser is wondering if a rhododendron is a flower or a plant.
I KNEW you were gonna write that about my favorite flower... or plant... wait, ummm...
Postcards! Brilliant!