The neighbors were out taking a walk. Their three-year-old showed me the tiny purple flower and a few of its leaves he’d been holding tight in his hand.

I silently thought as I admired his find, oh, some neighbor would be glad those future prickly weed seeds didn’t happen.

They asked about the tree?

The city had come by this morning to take on that fire blight. Which would have meant removing nearly every limb, but it looked surprisingly better when they got done. Maybe we’ll get a few more years out of it after all.

Look! I said to their little boy. There’s a bird’s nest! We moved under the limbs and looked up so he could see it better.

He was very excited about that and you know he’ll be telling them about every bird he sees for the next little bit and he’ll probably think he knows where they live.