I opened the blinds this morning and gasped with delight.

Wait, that’s not quite what happened.

I opened the blinds this morning, jumped back in delight and stared in awe.

I’m not sure that’s quite the way it happened, either.

I opened the blinds this morning and found myself staring at the fall color on the leaves of the paperbark maple, Acer griseum. A thousand memories of autumn flashed through my mind in an instant followed by a thousand imagined images of autumns to come.

Yes, it happened about like that.  (wink, nod)

I’m happy to have this tree in my garden, even though it is still a bit small and is going to take its time to grow to any size.

In a few years, the bark is also going to turn a cinnamon color and begin to look like someone has gently pulled away pieces of it and curled them up just a bit. The technical term is exfoliating.

If I am so excited by this little tree which has no known pest or disease problems and grows slowly adding six to twelve inches to its height each year, I can only imagine what the tree fairies and garden fairies are thinking.