A Lesson on Persistence

We had gorgeous spring weather for Easter, and everyone heaved a collective sigh of relief that our record breaking winter was over. Then along about mid-April it turned cold and icky for days on end. I even saw the cold drizzle turn to big flakes of snow, an "onion snow" that didn't stick. The cherry blossoms in DC had come (and mostly gone, along with the spring crush of tourists), but up in the wilds of Pennsylvania I found this lone tree, blooming in the face of adversity. To look at it you wouldn't even have thought it would make good firewood, but I thought it was a marvel.

With nothing for soil except the rocky leftovers from a reclaimed coal mine and bark on only half its twisted trunk, this tree is hangin' on.