When we moved here, late summer of 1986, we had a great expanse of backyard, with six or seven poplars shooting upward near our back boundary. They had little to offer, other than a silhouette against the southwestern sky. In a few years they began to look sickly, some died out, and tried to regrow without much success. I was happy when the decision was made to bring them down.
Over the next few years, a friend of ours offered a spindly maple that was growing near his front steps. We planted it in the back yard, not far from the house. It suffered a set-back, when Garrett and a neighborhood friend decided to chop it off, but it grew back, and grew stronger. Then, one summer day, we were visiting Grandpa and Evelyn at their home on the canal in Waterloo, and Grandpa pointed out a huge stump of a willow tree that the state had cut down at the edge of their property. There was new growth, Grandpa saw the possibility of new trees, so he cut off a couple of shoots for us, we kept them soaking in a bucket till they grew roots, and we set them in the ground. We chose the dip in the backyard, where it often was saturated after a rain. Willows have a special place in my heart. There was one at the cottage on the lake where I played as a child, and later there was the willow at the brick house. Both offered refuge and a cool retreat from the summer heat, and the sound of the wind in the willows brings back memories without much effort. Today our willows are home to the birds, and a cover for our wooden swing that was set there by Morgan and Garrett for our 30th anniversary. The lilac bush was a mother’s day present, and it seemed a suitable spot under the bedroom window. That too, suffered a blow, when Martha chewed it to the ground the first year, although the bush seemed to consider it a pruning, and did quite well the next year.
As I have had more time to think about our environment and our bird visitors, we have added the white spruce, a box elder and two maples. Birdhouses, birdfeeders, birdbaths, flowers, and now critters, have transformed the once-empty backyard. Last year was the first for squirrels, and this summer a woodchuck showed up. Thirty-some species of birds visit through the year. When I have a quiet moment, I sit on the deck, look around at the young trees, and imagine the changes that will occur around us in the next few years. Each season will be a vision unfolding.