The previous owners of my little homestead were content to let the backyard (and front) grow as the plants saw fit, which is fine as a philosophy, but ends up with more chaos than I am apparently happy with. One of the results is that trees end up growing into some rather strange configurations, including a live oak sapling that was growing at a 45 degree angle that would someday inevitably make the lower portion of my deck less than usable (somewhat like the much older oak that everybody demands I leave standing that is going to force the reconfiguration of the deck this summer). I mercilessly pruned (cut down) two of the trees that were choking this little sapling out and twined the tree up into a configuration that should hopefully get it more sun and not encroach on the deck as much.
Unfortunately it’s going to be years before the little guy looks anything less than pathetic compared to the rest of this forest in which I live. Luckily, I know a little bit about television sci-fi and my sisters gave me a delightful present for Christmas, so I hung a lantern on it.
Lantern hanging off my small oak