The smaller tree in the foreground here is a green Japanese maple. Dad and I planted that a few years ago. Behind it is a contorted willow. It is truncated because it became diseased so all the infected branches had to be cut off.
We had the yard reseeded, too, and it is growing. But the reason I took this picture is the robin in the center. Robins have been back for some weeks now, maybe even since February. It's great.
Spring is now so well advanced that there's no turning back. The title of this post makes me remember some good books I read when I was girl. It was a trilogy by Conrad Richter, The Trees, The Fields, and The Town.
When I was in high school, there was a TV miniseries based on these, starring Elizabeth Montgomery.
I recall being quite pleased with the miniseries in terms of its faithfulness to the books and the quality of the acting. Just now, looking at is on Amazon, I see that it had some pretty high-powered stars besides Miss Montgomery, like Hal Holbrook and Jane Seymour.
I remember liking that the main character named her first son "Resolve."
Conrad Richter wrote a number of good books about the American frontier. I should go look up who he was, what his background was, and try to figure out why he wrote those books. Nowadays, you can find so much information just by googling a name.
Anyway, I loved pioneer stories when I was a girl. The absolute pinnacle of my love was the Laura Ingalls Wilder "Little House" series, not to be confused with the treacly TV series of the same name. The last two Sundays when I was at church and there was time between when the choir practiced and when church started, then I went to the church library and found the Little House books and started reading By the Shores of Silver Lake. That book starts out so sad, with sister Mary going blind from scarlet fever and then their faithful dog, Jack, dying of old age.
Well, I'm getting carried away with Amazon links, here. I just got a gadget that lets me put them in just by clicking. It's too easy.
