Pussywillows

Today I saw that we have pussywillows already starting to pop out.

The storm that we had in December broke down our largest pussywillow. That has me very sad.

We have two types of pussywillow on the property. One is very early with large pussyfeet, but the limbs and trunks fall all the time, and I consider them fragile and transitory. The other grows larger and blooms late with small pussyfeet high up on top. Most of the pussywillows by the creek are the former. One of the largest plants by the creek besides the cottonwoods was a very large pussywillow of the latter kind. The tree was obviously very old and strong, and rounded out the creek area beautifully. It brought everything together perfectly, and the birds loved it. But the wind storm a month ago knocked it over. Now it's laying over most of the other pussywillows, and probably hurting them. But we have to wait until later in the spring to trim it out of the wild mess, because right now we can't tell what's alive and what's dead.