Simple Pleasures

I was out walking the dog over lunch today, walked under the pin oak down the street (that I'm now convinced is a Q. palustris x rubra hybrid since it has the incredible branch architecture of a pin oak but doesn't get chlorotic from high pH soils like most pin oaks taken out of their range and planted up here on the tundra), and I stopped dead in my tracks.

To listen to the tsssssshhhhh of the sleety snow flakes ricocheting off the persistent, brown leaves on their way to the ground.

Here's a photo of that tree at a warmer time:

What a tree!