The Best-Smelling Tree Ever

That's what I call the tree in the front yard because, honestly, I have no idea what else to call it. It doesn't look like much when it's not in bloom, but it's cute and short in stature. We've hung our bird feeders from it, and the tree is usually filled with sparrows, cardinals, wrens, finches and... squirrels. We have squirrels the size of small dogs around here. There's good eatin' in the Best Smelling Tree Ever. Oh, and on occassion, we have Downy Woodpeckers. I love those. They enjoy the suet feeder.

Once spring finally arrived, Josh and I got bees in our bonnets about this tree needing a bit of color at its base, since it was taking so long for any color in its leaves and flowers.  So Josh dug a circle around the base and put in some more little gray bricks. And we made trip #3,245 to Home Depot to see what they had that we couldn't live without, flower-wise.

I can't resist a good hipstamatic garden shot. Especially when there are watering pots in the foreground. In the back you can see our pine trees that still desperately need to have their bottom branches removed.  That's on the to-do list.  The ever-growing to-do list. Also seen is our neighbor's fence that I really love.  Next year, I am envisioning some day lillies or lavender growing along our side of that. Just thinking.

As I was saying, we ended up getting some flowers at Home Depot.  Not sure what they are, other than a flowering spring bulb. So they'll be back next year, which is exciting because they were very pretty purples and blues.

Later, I discovered that we had some violets in our back yard.  Violets! I love violets so much. They remind me so much of my grandmother. Well, both grandmothers, really. And I had an aunt Violet in Virginia who passed away not too long ago. Many reasons to love violets and know that their appearance in my yard was a very warm, homey welcome. Since they were in the middle of the yard and in danger of being mowed over, I transplanted them under the tree. They seem pretty happy there.





A few weeks after we built our mini-garden, the tree blossomed. Gorgeous, dark pink blossoms that hung down in clusters with yellow and white centers. And the scent was heavenly. Every morning when we left for work or came home at the end of the day, we were just overwhelmed by the sweetness of this little tree. Such a treat! Treasures like this have been an incredible reward for us during our yard discoveries. It must be an apple or cherry tree or something like that, but regardless, it's been wonderful.