The Leaves are Changing

I remember writing about our trees the day they were planted.  October Glory is what they were called.  Well folks, it's now October, and our trees, er, tree, is seeing it's glory days.  First, let me show her off.  Then I'll fill you in on the back story.

Well, this tree certainly looks glorious, at least in a scaled down type of way.  The other one, or should I say the third one, looks healthy, but was only planted last week and had only about 5 leaves on it at the time.  The actual second tree died sometime over the summer.  Although we, being novice gardeners, thought it was possibly just dormant, since it was the first year it was planted.  If you are laughing right now, just think to yourself how much we have to learn.  About 5ish weeks ago, Byron bumped the tree and it flat out broke in half.  Actually there was only a 12-inch stub sticking out of the ground.  That's when we knew the tree was really dead.  4ish weeks ago, I called the warranty hotline to report this, which by the way wouldn't even let me leave a message but redirected me to send an email.  Seriously?  Why do you have a hotline?  Argh.  But anyway...I reported it, and 3 weeks later they FINALLY responded.  And I suppose the wait was worth it because mama talked her way from a 1 inch tree to a proper 3 inch one.  I'll take no leaves as long as it comes back to life this spring!

Just like the trees are in transition from summer green to winter bare, I feel like we are in a transition period, too.  This fall has been a busy one, and I am looking forward to a slimmer schedule where I can stop running around and get back to the place I love - home.