Out Mal's Window: A Year in the Life of a Tree

We have been at Vogelfutter for a year now, and have really enjoyed the nature aspect of these apartments. Besides the road runners and other birds, rabbits, and coyotes, we've appreciated the greenbelt surrounding the complex.

Most of the trees immediately around the buildings are evergreens. But looking out Mal's window, you can see (to the far right) one taller tree that I believe is an oak. You can't tell from this angle, but we've walked out to it and it's in the middle of almost half an acre, all by itself.

I took this picture one evening soon after we'd moved in last year. (That building in the distance is ACC.)

By September of that year, the tree was thinning out from extreme heat and the onset of fall. One afternoon, under overcast skies, I took the picture below. The tree is at the very far right, almost out of the frame.

Austin doesn't have a fall season, per se. But one December as the sun was sinking in the west, it lit up the yellowing leaves remaining on the sole oak tree.

A few short weeks later, after the new year had started, the tree was bare for whatever winter we might have had.

So now the tree has come full circle, filling back out during the spring and ready to face the sauna of the summer that started in its strength a couple of weeks ago. I took this final picture out Mal's window today.

We've had a lot of rain, so everything is super thick and lush. It's such a tease, though. You look out that window and think, "Gosh, how beautiful! I should go out there." Then you open the door and feel that wet heat roll in, and you slam the door and swear not to leave again until Halloween.

So there you have it: a tree looks at 2015 and 2016. And we look at the tree. Happy summer, you guys. Hopefully it's more comfortable wherever you are.