Good Morning, Maple

It’s been another exciting week for my maple tree, so I’ve been taking photos every day. By Wednesday, the leaves were really opening up. And I noticed something interesting. Each bud had produced four new leaves. I never realized that before.

I guess I wasn’t the only one to notice the lovely new leaves. Can you see those little red dots on the leaves on the right? They’re insect eggs. I’m not sure what laid them, but I was really looking forward to watching them.

Then disaster struck.

We had a couple of really windy days. I mean REALLY windy. We’re talking 50 mph gusts. Even though I noticed a lot of small branches falling off trees in the yard, including the maple, I wasn’t worried about the four buds I’d been watching. I should have been.

It turns out, one of the buds snapped in the wind, and all four of the leaves attached to it blew away. It was the leaves with the tiny red eggs. I guess I’ll never find out what pops out when those eggs hatch. Bummer.

As you can see, all the leaves are fully outstretched now. It looks like leafout is officially over. That means it’s spring!