Goldie

Day 239: Two years ago, I bought a weeping Golden Chain Tree for my front yard. Last year, it produced a few chains, still getting settled into its new home, and this year, it has rewarded me with a lavish display of cascading yellow flowers. I've actually been pleasantly surprised by the growth rate of many of my landscaping trees. Harry Lauder (the contorted filbert) arrived here as a 16-inch twig and has now developed into a 10' x 10' bush. A spindly foot-tall Japanese red maple now towers 12' above my driveway, and a sickly 8' Mountain Ash survived an attack of ash-borers to become an 18-foot tall tree which provides berries for the birds. The red dogwood has grown from a 6' sapling to a twenty-foot tree which, although it "blooms" erratically, provides nice fall colour in its leaves. Sometimes it's hard to believe I've lived here thirty years (the longest I've ever lived in one spot), but the spectacle of the garden records the story in a most eloquently stated natural history.