I thought I’d try the back porch again since I beat the sun up. The sky’s a bit hazy… but that just matches the air across the neighbor’s yard. High humidity this morning and everything feels damp. With the temperature at 75 degrees the ceiling fans feel almost chilly.
As it always is, the natural ambiance is subdued. The birds are quieter, the traffic sounds a bit louder but not obtrusive, just a background rumble. The main difference between front and back is the sky. In the front shade and shadows rule. Only in small patches does the sky intrude. Out here in the back, it’s all about the sky… and once the sun clears the horizon, the sun in the sky. Here it’s patches of trees that frame the expanse of sky.
The front yard is about the birds in the trees, fluttering about, from limb to ground and back again. The back yard is about birds soaring, going somewhere, only occasionally contained by the borders of the yard. And while both are close to the same size area wise, one feels sheltering and the other expansive.
Yesterday I was going through my old hard drives checking out all of my photos that I haven’t been able to access in a while. Sitting up an old laptop to act as a server for my backup drives. I found a couple of shots from a decade and a bit ago. Compare them to the shots above…
Both shots were taken in the early morning before I left for work. You can see the red oak and the bald cypress in the first one. The second shows the bald cypress and the cedar trees. Both images show the pines. You can see the difference 12 and 13 years make in the size of the trees. One was taken from about where the house sits now. Though the other one was from the side about where storage building sits.
Here’s todays shots…
So… the growth over the past decade and a few is astonishing. What I’m seeing is the expansion of the woods by about 100 feet just with the growth of the trees I’ve planted. Truth be told, if I was able to hang around another 60 to 80 years, this back yard would probably take on much the same flavor as the front yard has taken on.
On that note I’ll take my leave. Y’all stay safe, stay healthy, and have a beautiful day. I’ll catch you on the other side.
