“…snapping my annual picture of YOUR blooming winter magnolia!”
When you live in a neighborhood for 20-plus years, you tend to think other people’s landscapes belong to everyone. On your daily drives and walks, it’s funny how you grow attached and mark the growth and yearly budding of the long-ago planted trees and flowering shrubs in neighbors’ yards.
Weird, I know. Maybe it’s a natural inclination to mark time or maybe just to show appreciation for a comforting and familiar landmark. For us more introverted folks, maybe it’s a way to feel connected to others without actually going through the trouble to make a friendship with another human. Or, most likely, it’s a momentary break from the tedium of my constant school/grocery store runs. Whatever the reason, I lie in wait for this pleasant botanical event every year. I dig a shock of feminine pink on a street corner.
For the record, I don’t think they mind this weird woman who paparazzi-es their cute tree on the corner. I mean, no cops ever show up.
