The Green Curtain

The official start of summer is still many weeks away and May can still throw some temperature curve balls at you but the trees are a clear sign of changing seasons.

As the blooms fade on the Red Bud and Dogwood, the leaves come out and take over. It is amazing how fast it happens. One day, there are just a bunch of little leaves and lots of blank space. The next day, the whole thing is green and you can’t see through it anymore.

There is a house next to us. Not right next to us but through a small wooded area and then up the next hill. While the leaves are down, it is clearly visible. Now, you just look at a curtain of green and you wouldn’t know there was a house nearby.

Further down is a busy road that carries all the people on their way to work. In the winter, you can see the long line of headlights. Now, it is essentially invisible. Of course, you still hear the cars but the noise is dampened just a bit.

The downside is that the owls are now mostly invisible. We’ll still hear them but spotting them becomes much more difficult. And the leaves cover up their nesting spot so we won’t see if there are new owls coming out this year.

And the deer we used to be able to see on the forest floor will just be rustling sounds. We’ll know something is there but not what it is. Except for when they show up to make a meal out of our flowers and other tasty perennials.

It changes a lot of how things look and feel around the house. Places that used to be sunny are now shaded. The wind will now sound much different going through all the leaves. And, of course, the dominant color is now green as opposed to the black, brown and grey of the winter and early spring.

I was fortunate to grow up in a house surrounded by several mature trees and with a small bit of woods nearby. I really couldn’t imagine living in one of the newer subdivisions they carve out of farm fields with nothing but a few ornamental trees planted here and there. Admittedly, there is risk because trees do break and topple as happened to us some years back. But I’ll live with that for all they add.