On the way home from church this morning I turned to my husband totally out of the blue and blurted out, "I want a sweet gum tree."
At that point any normal husband would have pointed out that we already have more than enough trees and that even if we could afford to buy a new tree, we have no real need for a tree that will drop annoying pods all over the place. But who ever said my husband was normal?
"Why do you want a sweet gum tree?" he asked.
"I like the shape of the leaves," I said, "and they turn a really pretty red in the fall."
Neither of those are particularly good reasons to invest the kind of time and money required to plant a new tree, but nevertheless he nodded and admitted that he has always appreciated the stately shape of the sweet gum--but where would we put it?
At that point he steered the Volvo right off the driveway and took a wide, meandering loop around the meadow so we could visualize the effect of a mature sweet gum tree near the bluff or in front of the apartment or on the slope above the garden. "It won't matter if pods fall here," he pointed out, "because they'll just blend in with all the other falling stuff."
It was for moments like this, I think, that I married the guy--so that one day when I shared a sweet-gum dream, he would find a way to make it grow.
6 comments:
I had no idea what a "sweet gum" tree was, and thought it was probably some sort of Eucalyptus. So I looked it up. We had a couple of these in the front yard in the house where I grew up, except we called them "Liquid Amber" trees. They were beautiful!
I hope you'll share a picture when you plant your tree. (Is it too late to plant where you are?)
I had no idea what a sweet gum tree was either, so I also looked it up. I didn't have one in my childhood front yard. In fact, I don't think I've even seen one before. ???
I love Garry's reaction! I knew I liked that guy!
Well, I hope you get the tree and I hope you get to enjoy a lot of red leaves. While we're hoping, I hope I will someday get the kind of guy who will do something like steer a car off the road to visually plant a tree with me.
Hope you had a nice weekend, Bev! Betsy
I don't want to say this, but, that's is so sweet!
Liquid Amber! That's just lovely, and so appropriate.
We could plant a tree now if we had a tree. We'll have to work on that part first. Maybe next spring...
I've been thinking about your tree. When I moved houses, I planted 7 new trees in my yard (it's a biggish yard, and this is tree country). And one of my friends who was helping me plant said something about how planting trees is a sign of optimism. You only plant trees if you can imagine 50+ years down the line, or something.
So I think it's a good thing to plant yourself a tree and enjoy it growing up.
I agree, Joy. It is incredibly sweet.
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