We’ve enjoyed lots of rain this past week on the Olympic Peninsula, with the first real snow arriving on the area’s higher mountains.

The weather has been mild and wet here at 1200+ feet altitude. Our grass is a beautiful rich green, and Coppertop’s stream is flowing again.

The hens are loving the juicy worms they pull from the mud. Their beaks are covered in dirt from their foraging. Egg production still lags from molting, but the protein can only help.

Coppertop gardens were overplanted when we moved here in 2014. We’ve taken out a few trees that felt out of place or way too crowded, including a birch and a fruit tree. We’ve also had professionals come to remove about half a dozen native trees, mainly alders, to improve views or because they looked sickly. Even more trees were felled during the massive wind storm at the end of August. In that storm we lost the great pink honeysuckle tree off our main deck, a beautiful sweetgum by the pond, and more alders.

Replacing the removed trees is not always in our plan. We did add a couple of semi-dwarf cherry trees this year — a Rainier and a Lapins — to sunny spots that needed a feature.  We knew we needed to replace the pink honeysuckle since it occupied a launching spot for all the birds that visit our deck feeders. The portion of the garden that it’s been missing from has been a sad, gaping area. Thanks to Hubby, that area now boasts a new beauty.

Planting trees has always felt like a celebration in the truest sense of the word. This may be because during my childhood, our family occasionally commemorated birthdays by planting trees in the birthday child’s honor and ever after referring to them as “March’s Tree” or “MC’s Tree.” I believe my childhood tree was a plum. 😉

So in celebration of our talented and adorable niece, Laine, turning 17 today, we’ve selected and  planted a tree! This is a young Kwanzan flowering cherry, Prunus serrulata. Happy Birthday, Laine!

I fell in love with these trees on a local garden tour where they lined a driveway in pure loveliness. Kwanzans do well here in the Pacific Northwest, and this ornamental baby will grow to fill this spot with gorgeous double pink blooms. Photos from the web:

Now that makes me feel like celebrating!