Explanation

I have to explain why I put that particular "Picture of the Week" up, for this week. First off, that is a cherry tree in the yard. Second, we've had dreary days the past few days and since the pic was taken earlier in the week, when we had sunshiny weather, it made me feel good just putting it up. Mental note... maybe I shouldn't type these up this early since my mind seems to wander around in my own dreamworld. I just realized I've been sitting here, not typing, but staring off into space, thinking of another entry I will post on later. This was ten minutes ago!

Getting back... so this particular cherry has only bloomed once, since I've been here, about four years ago, (and no other time before that) and it was so majestic and grand then that I've waited every year for its blossoms. The year it blossomed, which I keep telling everyone is the secret, was the year I took Jake, the orange cat, out for walks around the lawn, with a leash. (We eventually stopped this when we found a big ol' tick sticking to him). But during this time we were tick-free and so we would ramble around. I took him to the front yard and to my amazement he actually started digging a little hole and instead of rolling around in the dirt (which he usually did) he decided to squat over it and leave the tree a little present, in the form of manure. A few weeks later, voila! The grand fuschia blossoms of this cherry tree.

Well now... so about ten days ago, Rich and I were getting the house ready for inspection, (it's for an appraisal for a loan), when I suggested that the outside of the house needed our attention too, such as pruning and putting together a few bushes and branches. He goes ahead with his duties, like a good man, heh, and I worked around the inside. I was done and wanted to see how he had progressed. When I opened the front door... there on the welcome mat looked something like a dead creature. I opened the glass door and got a good peek at it, which scattered the flies. It looked like a little mouse with bits of puked up cat food surrounding it.

I stepped gingerly over the mat and went to Rich to ask him if he saw the mat item. He really doesn't watch where he's going, so I knew the answer was "no", and so he said "no" and I told him to take a look. When he did, we came up with the hypothesis that this was a carcass of a mouse, which a cat had swallowed up (live), but couldn't keep in and decided to leave, as a present to us, (we changed it later to a present for Soot, cause she is quite the little beauty). Well now the question was, who would clean it? I'm the less squeamish of the two when it comes to dead creatures (see my dead creatures pictures on my laptop), and even though it was decided that it was a present for Soot, from a neighborhood (admirer) cat, I really believe that it was meant for me. Rich didn't see it, his vision was clouded, it was only revelaed to me. And so, with this offering, I too, dug a hole at the base of the tree and gently (alright, roughly) pushed the mouse thing and goodies into the hole and covered it up. Well, whaddaya know? A few days later, the tree blossomed. Rich thinks it's witchcraft on my behalf, in form of an animal sacrifice.

Anything to make this tree bloom. Of course the nasty little inch worms made small work of it in a few days and ate most of its blooms and leaves. And so, that was the story of my cherry blossoms and the picture below.

Me