Sept. 19 - Lisa's Musings From Every Day Life

Sometimes a sacrifice must be made for the greater good.

I made one today, so let me explain.

There are lots and lots of trees on my property. Pines of all sorts, maples, oaks, birch, a corkscrew willow, apples, pears, cherries, ornamental something's or others and I'm sure I've missed a few. Or 50. And then there are my two favorite trees, which are Rose-of-Sharon.

Well, one of them was leaning against my expensive dog yard fence and although it bloomed like a champ this year, parts of it were rotting and although it's supposed to grow upright -- at was in such bad shape, it was growing parallel to the ground.

My friend, Becca, told me a few months ago, it needed to come out but I insisted it wasn't going anywhere.

Well, today, with my little brother here helping me clean gutters and change light bulbs and replace and rehang shower curtains, I made the fateful decision.

One of the two Rose-of-Sharons will have a new purpose in life as a nice place for little rabbits or squirrels or chipmunks or other little woodland creatures to hide under this winter. It now lines on the side of my property with the other brush that's been removed from its original location.

We tried to trim it to help it along, but branches I thought were happy, in reality were really unhappy, and I think it's profuse blooming this year was a last gasp attempt to show its appreciation for a great life.

Its cousin, or maybe its aunt or uncle -- not sure which -- got a nice branch trim and we cut out the other scrub trees that were taking away some of its sunlight.

I sure hope its not too lonely now.

But I vowed to plant it a replacement friend next year.

In the meantime, I snipped off several small branches with blooms that hadn't opened yet, stripped off some of the leaves and placed the twigs in a vase on the kitchen table in the hopes that the blooms will open.