ARBOR DAY

  I

In the United States, National Arbor Day is an annual observance about the importance of trees and encourages tree-planting and care.  Arbor Day was first celebrated in Nebraska in 1872, and is observed on the last Friday in April.  In some states, Arbor Day is observed on different dates based on the best tree-planting times;  e.g;, in California, Arbor Day is celebrated March 7-14.

I am currently mourning the loss of our beautiful birch tree which I had named "ROBERT FROST", in honor of his poem Birches.   I am grateful to have "BIG BEN"--the name I bestowed on the enormous pine tree in our back yard--as it gives us great protection and privacy.  The gingko tree is my favorite;  it was a gift from my mother and I call it "ABBY" because that was one of my mother's nicknames.  No, I do NOT think it strange to name inanimate objects!

Across the street, and for three houses down, none of the houses have any trees.;  directly behind us and beside us on two sides, there are no trees.  Our house is surrounded by trees and I love my JUNGLE;  in fact, I was upset when my husband cut down some bushes to make a path to the street from our back yard.  Prior to that I couldn't see the houses of the next-door neighbors, or houses down the street, except in the winter, when the deciduous trees lost their leaves. Several years ago, one of the neighbors grumbled to Gerald about having to rake "OUR" leaves. Gerald offered him the use of his leaf blower.

When we first moved here, we noticed that some of the neighbors had aluminum pot pie pans tied in their trees. Then we noticed some of them were outside banging boards together. We thought this was rather curious behavior. One day Gerald was outside and the next-door neighbor asked him, "What do you folks do to get rid of the birds?" Gerald naively answered, "We do everything we can to attract them." Obviously that was not the right thing to say; the neighbor turned and walked away and didn't speak to him for the next several years. They kept banging and clanging to keep away the birds and we were installing bird houses. I told Gerald we had "disturbed the status quo".

Eventually that house was bought by people who turned out to be friendlier neighbors;  or, perhaps, it was because, when we moved here, WE were the new neighbors with different customs, and now, we are the long-time residents, but I'm not grumbling. All of the houses around us, except for one, are now inhabited by people who bought the houses after we were here.

AHA! We're now the status quo!