A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Today's walk took us through a mile of pink or white blossoming trees and clusters of yellow forsythia and daffodils.

The occasional pink-blossoming tree is probably a flowering cherry. Or maybe a flowering plum. The ubiquitous white-blossoming trees arching their malevolent arms over the streets are the loathsome Bradford Pears. The arms are "malevolent" because the trees are brittle and fragile. The older they get, the more likely it is that one of their clunky branches could flatten you or your car. Windy weather brings down branches all over the neighborhood. They are a junk tree, a "Frankentree", according to my husband. They stink. Literally. Walk beneath them and you get an unpleasant whiff of something fishy. The county has recognized its error in the wholesale planting of this tree 50 years ago and is gradually cutting them all down.

Before the coronavirus made us all afraid, my husband and I used a "grabber" to pick up trash along our route. We started collecting just cans and bottles for the recycling bin, but after awhile, we began collecting trash--paper napkins, fast food containers, sales slips, etc--for the trash can as well. (I love the Spanish translation of the "trash only" phrase that's on the cans provided by the county:  "basura solamente." This is a phrase melodious for something malodorous, wouldn't you agree?)   Anyway, since the country is in crisis mode, we have stopped our two-person effort to keep Maryland beautiful. Like the coronavirus outbreak, the trash pileup will get worse before it gets better. Someday, when life returns to normal, perhaps we can restart our beautification project.  Hope springs eternal.