The Mulberry Tree Show

Here we go round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush.
Here we go round the mulberry bush
On a cold and frosty morning.

The list of things I do not know about nature gets longer by the year.

There is a tree on our property I always call the whomping willow (after the famous tree in the Harry Potter novels.)  Every year it looks like it had died right up until early June when suddenly it comes to life.  Then in the Fall it drops all it's leaves in one night.  We wake up to a naked tree surrounded by a three foot leaf pile.  We have thought about cutting it down.

This year it came back to life late again and every bird and squirrel within a one mile radius seemed to move in.  The squawking when I walk under it has been intense and we can't believe how many nests appeared.  And now I know why.

The tree is a magic tree!

It is a mulberry tree.  It has not given fruit in the ten years we have lived here and this year....I could start a mulberry winery.

I was getting worried about the berry droppings because my dog Magnus is eating them.  But since all the other animals seemed happy I decided the berries must be non poisonous.  

Yesterday we had people walking on our property who had an immediate reaction to the tree.  They had not seen one in bloom since they were children.  They enjoyed the fruit immensely!

 This is a Van Gogh painting of a mulberry tree.  How lucky I am to have seen one up close!