Kris and I thought it would be nice to plant a tree this fall, something that would grow with us in our new home. When we began to discuss what sort of tree we might like, we decided one that turns yellow in the fall would be pretty against the red brick of the house. That reminded us of the glorious tree in front of the mod house. We discovered that it was a ginkgo tree.
Assuming a ginkgo tree was not the sort of thing one finds at Lowe’s, we asked Liz about it one evening. She said she’d look into it for us.
This weekend, Liz and her mom discussed ginkgos and went looking among their tree offerings. I think they bought a lot of trees from a recent trade show and weren’t even sure what they had. Wouldn’t you know, there was a single ginkgo tree?
Kris asked them how much they wanted for it, and Liz said she and Chris would like to gift it to us as a housewarming present. Not only that, but they came over yesterday and planted it! Two hours it took them to dig the massive hole and plant that tree. (Mr. Ben slept the whole time and we’re out of baby monitor batteries, so I missed the whole thing.)
Not twenty minutes after they all retired inside, our neighbor came over.
“Is that a ginkgo?!?” she exclaimed. “I love ginkgos!”
As it turns out, she had looked years ago for one and there were none to be found. Where it’s planted now, she can see it every morning from her screen porch.
So the Woods came over and made not only our day, but our neighbor’s, too. We are insanely blessed.
Oh, I love Gingko’s too! They used to be hard to find when I was growing up, and my mom knew where one was in Bham, so if we were over there during the time when they are yellow, we would drive by. When I moved to Pennsylvania, they were planted fairly commonly in my town. The first year there, I mailed my mom an envelope full of the lovely yellow leaves.
Maybe you’d have to know that my mom has leaves, and sticks, and rocks, and bugs, and stuff all around the house to get the full picture. Even knowing that, you’d kind of have to see it.
Dude, we have the best friends.