We brought this tree home from my cousin’s house in Maryland. It was a tiny little thing in a bucket. We planted it. And twenty-five years later, it’s an amazing tree. It is green all summer and turns bright scarlet in late September. It is the first tree to change color and the last to lose it. I love this tree.
We had three hours of sunlight today, but now I hear thunder. It’s going to rain. More. It rained overnight and now, it will rain tonight. We’ve gotten 11-inches of rain this month which is the “normal” amount of rain for four months of summer — remembering that summer are our dry months when the climate it normal.
Which it clearly is not. The rain is good and we need it, but it would be better if it were spread out a bit more. Less all the rain in the world in a few weeks. More regular rain week to week. But, I’m glad to get rain any way we can. It has been a very long drought.
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Categories: #foliage, #Photography, Anecdote, climate, landscape, Nature, New England, Rain, square, Weather
SERENDIPITY - SEEKING INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH 
Hello! I’m visiting from Becky’s gallery of tree squares. It’s winter here in Australia so your lovely summer trees are a very welcome sight.
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I love that it’s summer too. Now, if we’d get some weather that wasn’t wet, that would be nice. It’s beginning to flood all over New England now. We’ve gotten rain every day for a month. Supposed, we might get two or three days of sunshine during the next week. But at least it isn’t SNOWING. We’d be buried by now.
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Ha! If it’s not one thing it’s another with the weather. We usually have dry mild winters here but this year we’ve had some very welcome rain. Just enough, not too much.
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Maples are wonderful trees. I used to have a Japanese Maple in Geeveston but I wonder if they are the same tree because in Australia Japanese Maples have red leaves all year round.
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There are two kinds: red and green. Either kind can breed the other kind. I know this because my cousin’s husbands breeds them. People mostly prefer the red ones, so you see them more often. I love the green ones because when they change color in the fall, they are absolutely stunning. Those green leaves turn absolutely scarlet with hints of gold. Same tree, different coloring.
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That’s really interesting to know. They are beautiful green and I like the idea that you can have the best of both, green in spring and summer and red in autumn.
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what a wonderful tree – and yay for rain but as you say why cannot it appear slowly over many weeks
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Considering how long this drought has been, rain any old way is better than another dry year. We haven’t been back to the river during the monsoon season and today it’s bright and sunny. Also hot and humid, but no fear. Rain tomorrow! But I think summer has finally arrived.
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yay for summer, and here’s to a bit more rain for you but in the evenings!!
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Wonderful, Marilyn, looks quite the verdant paradise. Must be all that rain! 🙂
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We actually have something resembling a lawn in both front and back yards. It hasn’t been cut in a long time because you can’t cut it in the rain. If we manage to get two or three dry days, THEN we can cut it. We even have some GRASS!
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I remember a hideously hot summer we had here a few years back that ran for nine scorching weeks with no rain. Everywhere looked scarily arid and the grass was all brown. We were so relieved when it finally rained and the colour began to return. Glad you have some decent grass to cut. 🙂
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I don’t think I’ve seen green lawns in at least five years. This has been a long, long drought. Not a 100% no rain drought, but very little rain, not enough snow, and dry summers that go completely dry in may and last through October. We’ve had summers so dry that we didn’t get autumn colors. The leaves just turned brown and fell off the trees. And we’ve had the well run dry, too — talk about scary. No well, no life!
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Lovely trees, they must enjoy all that rain!
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I’ve never seen this place look so green in the 20 years we have lived here. Wildflowers that normally live a week or two are blooming two months after they began and the roses are going crazy. We also have a lot of very young birds and baby-sized squirrels.
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What a beautiful area you live in, Marilyn.
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It is beautiful. This is its least interesting season because it’s all green. By the end of August, we’re going to start to see leaves changing color and with a little luck — if it doesn’t rain all through the autumn — we’ll have some colors in the fall. The weather has always been erratic here. Now, it’s just MORE erratic. But so far, still beautiful.
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I think that’s true allover, Marilyn. It is in Mexico, too.
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