Otherworldly shades of green...

So you know the tree? The big beautiful ent tree I couldn't get enough of when I first got here (and still can't)...? A couple of weeks ago, I began to get worried... she wasn't looking so good. Her leaves were all wilty, shriveling and sparse... made me think back to my arboretum days when we had to keep a close eye on our elms as dutch elms disease was sweeping the midwest, wiping out all the big old elm trees... But she has two sisters-- out behind my house, equally stunning trees that I noticed were also looking peaked. I felt less worried at this somehow, perhaps they were all just going through the same dormancy cycle?? And one fine day all of their leaves were just gone. (surely, SURELY it must just be part their growth rhythm...) I continued to monitor them closely- not entirely convinced we were out of the woods, and to my great relief, after just a couple of weeks their branches started to plump out again, and in the last few days exploded into the most brilliant, otherworldly shades of green!

(pardon the wires)



My camera doesn't do them justice, but they are bedazzling, almost too green to be true!

And how nice-- just a couple of leafless weeks, and BAM, we're back to fully energized, green leafy goodness! Hooray the monkeys have returned!! Not only the red tailed chaps with heart shaped noses, but the grey cheeked mangabeys as well!