first 2008 snow

Snow in January--kind of a cliche. But when you haven't seen snow for a while it looks enchanting all over again.

Here's 3 o'clock at Monterey yesterday. That's the white oak, left, which won't let its dead leaves fall until the buds push them away in the spring. The oak is huddled against one of our live Christmas trees from yesteryear--a fir a think.

White oak pleads...

...pleads for a little bit more time. Look at those leaves straining to communicate. And that color--isn't that a shameless bargain for more life.

But the tree knows what time it is.

This white oak is growing in the southwest corner of our little triangle in Monterey. We chose it because the 1824 deed describes the lines of our lot as going from "the huge stone at the side of the road, direct south to the old white oak." The white oak in 1824 surely was original growth and could easily have been there since 1500. Now this upstart, no more than a teenager, is trying to push all limits since we gave it nutritional iron two years ago.

Behind it is the spruce we used as a live Christmas tree ten or so years ago. The weather will soon get freezing cold. The oak will hibernate. The spruce, tough it out. They each inspire me.