Trees and Shade

Mom always had a lot to say about the worth of a tree, and how important they were for shade and such. She hated to see one cut down. Here where we live, we have reason to be thankful for two big shade trees. But the catch is, neither one is on our property. They're each just outside the property line, but that doesn't stop the shade from happening. And wow, am I thankful for that shade.

On the east side of our property, our neighbor's beautiful Maple tree.



It gives good shade on spring and summer mornings.



It's really nice to sit here of a morning.



On the west side, there's a huge Locust tree. Again, it's just outside our property line, but right next to our house.



It shades the front yard nicely late in the day, plus the house as well (on the front part). Shade on a house in the summer helps a LOT.



We have two trees actually ON our property. One is this fairly good-sized Locust tree back by our shed, but that's located in no-man's land where we never go.



The other is this Redbud. It isn't very big, but we enjoy it, and it helps our front yard look nice. When we first moved in, it was basically a bush made up of a bunch of small trunks. Through these last 4-5 years, I've trimmed it, removing some of the suckers. You can see here that there are some more dead parts to prune out. But it's getting more of a "tree" shape. AND, it's definitely getting TALLER than when we first moved in!



We enjoy sitting in the front yard ... just to get out of the house, maybe watch traffic drive by. Here I'm looking over some yarn for a project, and enjoying some Indian Fry Bread that Hubby made.



I like to sit in the back yard and knit, or just sit and look and think. It's a little more private (relatively speaking) than the front yard.



The sun shines through the lush Maple leaves.



Beautiful, beautiful shade.