Happy and sad kind of day.

This was suppose to be on the end of the post. But blogger thought it should go first I guess!
This is what we are seeing a lot of around here. the past couple of years. Look how high this span of the highway is going to be! I never thought I would see this in our city! I guess we are "growing up" in more ways then one. You can't drive any where with out running into orange cones and barrels, closed lanes. etc. A lot of construction and deconstruction. We have so many round abouts now it is rediculous! Sometimes 3 in a row. I am getting use to them, even though you feel like your head is on a swivel some times. lol. I can't imagine what the view will be from here. Might be interesting for picture taking. With Jeff driving of course. Right now it looks like a theme park ride! WHEEE!

The sad part of today is when we took the burlap off the Japanese Maple. We always covered it in the winter as they are not truly hardy here. When we took the burlap off we found that a mouse, vole, or whatever got to it and ate all the bark off. We know that it wasn't a rabbit as we have the yard blocked off with hardware cloth stapled onto the privacy fence. We check it often. Anyway I had to go in the house for a short cry. I was so upset. I know that this sounds weird but let me tell you the story behind this tree. Jeff didn't see me cry. But he knew what this tree meant to me and really felt bad that he couldn't save it. He would have tried any thing, but there was to much damage. Here is a short story of the tree:
I planted this at the house I had before we got married. I had a golden ret. at the time and she was usually a big help with gardening. Carrying hand tools, etc. Anyway she must not have liked where I planted it and dug it up. It did survive her torture. She actually ran around the yard with it. It never got higher then 3 feet tall as the leader was broken off. Tiffy passed away a couple of years after this one was planted. So this tree kept some of my memories of her. I didn't realize it until today how much meaning this tree had for me. When we got married and I moved into Jeff's house this tree and a weeping hemlock moved with me. So it was a real shock when I uncovered the maple today! I don't think I really realised at first what had happened! Here are some pictures of it in fall color, summer color and what we found today. Plants come and go, but this really hit me hard. Still teary, weird as that is to some people.

 

Fall colors

In summer colors. Much redder then it looks here next to a fern.

This is what we found today! So sad looking. Barkless!

We also have to take a ornamental Newport plum out. Very much a Japanese Beetle magnet. But it was infested so much last year that it weakened the tree. Another beautiful tree that has to go! Sometimes I wonder why I garden.
But then I remember this:

We are now looking for a Butterly Magnolia tree. They are suppose to be hardy and not many insects like them. Hard to find in the tree form. Saw bush for biut we want the branching to start farther up. Not block other plants. A nursery near here is suppose to get some in. We are going to go tomorrow and see if they will call us when they come in. This place is new to us and I want to check it out. Even though some plants won't be in yet because of the cold weather we had been having. But it was closer to 70 today. So spring may come yet. I also saw that another nursery is getting in a clematis that I am looking for. I will have to check with them again.
Blogger keeps changing my pictures around changes font size. I am not retyping this again. Three times already! Bad Blogger! So I am sorry for the small type.
Contrary to most of my post we did have some good times today. It was beautiful out. Sunny and warm!  It was so nice to go out with-out a coat on! Tanner got to play fetch and he is one tired pup tonight! Yard was dry so he could actually run and not look like a mud speckled dog. Every day I take a walk around the yard and see new plants poking through. I think about 3/4 of the plants are coming up now. Always makes my heart sing to see all the new growth! This is the time of year to count your miracles. New growth and new beginnings. Even with the downer I had today with the maple I am still happy. I am very blessed with everything in my life.
I hope everyone has a great week. Hugs, Teresa