With all of the excitement we experienced earlier this week, it was time to get back to normal. The storm that passed through left us with a lot of mud, browner grass, wishing for summer, and a yard littered with broken tree branches.
When we first moved here, I wasn’t too impressed with the looming Magnolia tree that hovered over a section of our backyard. Because of its enormity and bulkiness of branches, the ground underneath is perpetually dirt. Flowers don’t grow and grass doesn’t grow. Dirt just lives.
The children have no problem with the dirt and have played in it and dug plenty of holes. They like dirt. They also like climbing in the tree branches, which is not a favorite activity of mine for them. I use to climb in trees when I was little and never once thought about any worry my mother might have had. Hmm. I guess that is what I get.
The ice clung heavy onto anything it touched and the Magnolia tree became a victim with brittle branches that cracked and fell to the ground. Periodically, throughout the night, we heard limbs snapping and cracking before they fell with a thump. Fortunately, the tree doesn’t hang anywhere near over our house.
The damage was relatively minor. What was left was a pile of tree limbs covering the ground. On the tree, it was like the winter monster took a big chunk out of the tree, but because the leaves are so plenty, you can hardly tell.
Since all of the children have been so eager to get outside, they were willing to come out and help me collect as much of the remnants from the winter monster as we could.
The city cleaning crew was making its rounds picking up debris from the storm.
I am so happy they like working in the backyard. Maybe, that will be enough motivation for me to start a garden this year.
It was considered that maybe we should cut the tree down, but of course that idea was laid to rest. It may create a constant cleaning project for us with the leaves that fall, but it also puts out beautiful blossoms like this. Maybe, we will just give the tree another good trimming.
