The little stick that could

When we moved into our home almost 11 years ago, Lora signed us up to get some trees from the Arbor Day Foundation. They sent us 10 'trees'. And by trees, I mean sticks. Seriously, they were sticks. No branches, no leaves...just sticks.

So B-rad planted all my sticks. Some of them have made it, and some have been devoured by deer. It's amazing to me how the deer come so close to the house. They destroyed the sticks before they got big enough to take the abuse. And now the trees that are established, the deer rub their antlers & heads against them. Whatever - stupid deer.

Ok-so back to my sticks. 2 of the sticks were Bradford Pear trees. And I've waited very impatiently for the glorious day when they would bloom. Last year (after the sticks were 10 years old) they developed blooms over about half. Well, finally this year it bloomed like crazy! And I was SO happy! And today it was SO nice outside when I got home, I wanted to take a few pics to brag to you about my tree rearing skills. Some of the blooms have already started to go away... a couple of days ago there was absolutely NO green in this tree. All white! This pic was taken off the deck. I was probably 10'-15' feet off the ground. The tree is way taller than that!
Of course, one of the faithful & loyal steeds had to come out & see what was going on. Noisy cats...they get that from B-rad...