Annoying Tree

We've had some really beautiful weather this week, beautiful for Bakersfield anyway. It started out really hot on Monday with us actually having to turn the a/c on, but then Tuesday was like 20 degrees cooler and sunny and really pleasant. Except for the wind. It's been breezy this week, breezy enough to bring down a few small branches from our tree out front.

Our tree out front. I think it is a camphor tree according to my googling, which is considered an invasive pest tree in many areas because the leaves are toxic and have a higher level of carbon which can get into the ground water. Or something like that.

It's the tree where Lucy has her custom built cat perch and where she spends a large amount of time surveying her Queendom Of The Front Yard.

It's a very hardy tree and is evergreen, so no bare branches in the winter and it's an excellent shade tree. I do like having it out front to shade our porch but I had forgotten how annoying it is in the spring when the wind blows. The tree grows tiny little flowers that turn into pea sized berries that then drop onto the ground. All over the place. The berries aren't that bad, I think the birds enjoy eating them, but after the berries are gone the little tiny caps from the probably a billion berries that were on our one tree dry up and fall off of the tree. In huge quantities. The leaves also fall from the tree when it's windy, but they aren't as annoying as the tiny tiny seed caps that come down like rain. And get all over the place. Including the one that found it's way inside my bra and I couldn't figure out what the heck was poking me down in there. And the ones that land on my head when I'm trying to sit out front. And the ones that I swept up the other day along with little tree branches and leaves after a particularly windy night.


Billions and billions of tiny berry caps.

Billions. This is the patio AFTER I swept. They are so tiny that it's impossible to get them all cleaned up.