Pink Trees

We have these pink trees all over right about now...by which I mean trees all covered with pink flowers, not some strange alcholic nightmare trees in the spirit of pink elephants or something. This is because it is trying to be Spring, and I know this because the frogs are singing their hearts out every night in search of love (Mr. K says they're so loud tonight that even the UGLY frogs are going to get lucky....which begs the question of what constitutes an ugly frog...but I digress), the indoor/outdoor kitties are spending more time outside and coming in all covered with bits of grass from rolling in it exultantly, and the lawn is starting to look as though I could lose a car in it if I wasn't careful--which means that the riding mower and I will soon be having our annual stand off, wherein it tries to pretend it didn't intentionally tree me off of its back (I really did get treed off a riding mower, seriously--could I make something that stupid up?) and I try to pretend I didn't flood the motor about twelve times and we both try to pretend that we aren't secretly plotting the other's demise. Spring.

So these pink trees are all over everywhere, including our own back yard. I know these to be Flowering Cherry trees, and Mr. K knows them to be Redbud trees. The discussion suggests that either we are both incredibly stubborn, or one or both of us needs more to do. To wit:

Mr. K: "Oh, look! Another redbud tree!"

Me: "That's a flowering cherry."

Mr. K: "No, it's a rosebud tree."

Me: "A rosebud tree? I thought you said redbud tree."

Mr. K: "You're right-it's a redbud tree."

Me: "I never said it was a redbud tree!"

Mr. K: "Well, it's not a rosebud tree."

Me: "....I...."

Ultimately, and because we are both in a state somewhat prior to employment and therefore somewhat bereft of terribly important things to which we might attend, we decided to look both trees up on the internet and thus solve this earth shattering dilemna. We found this picture of a Redbud tree:

And this photo of flowering cherry trees:

Mr. K now feels vindicated:

Mr. K: "See? The ones around here are redbud trees! The bark is exactly the same."

Me: "But..you can't even SEE the bark!"

Mr. K: "Then how do you know it's not the same as our trees?"

Me: "Okay, fine. Go out and look at the tree in the back yard and come tell me what it looks like."

Mr. K: "But it's dark out there."

Me: "Then how can you tell it's not a flowering cherry?"

And so it went. Finally I read on one of the websites that Redbud trees are mostly native to the Eastern and Southern United States, and that one type is native to Oklahoma--just one state away from where he grew up. I pointed this out, making the generous concession that it was an honest mistake on his part--he grew up in Kansas and there probably were many redbud trees there. To which he replied "Just because they're not native here doesn't mean they can't come here."

Well, yes. I have seen many tourist trees in this area. You can always tell them. They are invariably wearing flat shoes and have cameras in their branches and want pictures taken of themselves in front of the Space Needle. That would explain the abundance of these pink trees in Seattle Center, the area around the Space Needle.

I also tried pointing out that Debi's husband is terribly allergic to flowering cherry trees and reacts to all the pink trees around here, so therefore.....

Mr. K said "Ah, so you're arguing about the type of tree based on the allergic reaction of someone? How do you know he's not allergic to redbud trees as well?" My response that "Because we don't have redbud trees around here." apparently didn't hold much water with my scientist husband.

The moral of the story is this: Mr. K needs to be working. I need to be less crazed about school. And we need to ignore the pink trees. We have some lovely Japanese maple about which we both completely agree.

In a more serious aside, I want to send as much love as one blog can hold to our own dear Angie of Hickory Pill. Ang is thinking about stopping her blog and, while I don't know the details (and totally respect her right to privacy) I know it's because of something someone else said or did. Ang, I love you to pieces. I hope you don't let someone else take your creativity and humor and joy away from us. I would miss you horribly. You are a gem, and I'm holding you close in my heart as you make your way through this.

Today's Quote, courtesy of Hafiz (and with Angie in mind): "The heart is the thousand stringed instrument that can only be tuned with love." Ang, I'm sending lots of love to your precious heart.