Rest in Peace

Unfortunately I don't have any good pictures of it at it's prime, but I'd like to pay tribute to our beloved ficus tree. (the branches in the top left corner.) John's dad bought it for us at Home Depot when we bought our first house. It was a good tree. Our house had a big, bright living room with vaulted ceiling and plenty of sunshine. It THRIVED. I would have to trim it somewhat regularly. People would come over and be like "wow! is that thing real?" Really. It lived a happy life until we moved. Here's another shot of it, (don't look at the messy kitchen) you can just see it barely above the wall that separates the kitchen from the front room.

Then we moved. While the new house was better for us, our poor ficus didn't fare so well. It held on for a few years, but never relived it's glory days. The only spot we could put it (except my bathroom tub, but I need that) wasn't as brightly lit and the ceiling isn't as tall. It fared okay, unless you looked too closely, the back was totally nearly devoid of any leaves. There was always a bunch of dead ones to sweep up. Made me insane trying to keep up with the mess.

Anyhow, three and a half years later, the tree is in pretty sad shape. To top it off, we were finally replacing our old, small entertainment center with a much larger one to house the humongous TV John rewarded himself for getting his insanely difficult CCIE certification. The tree used to sit next to the old entertainment center and now there wouldn't be any room for it.

We gave it one last long shot at life, and planted the thing in the back yard. That was either too much of a shock for it, or the spot is cursed (it's not the first tree to die there, I should have a lovely purple flowering tree there now) but this last weekend, we paid our final respects and sent it off to the dump with the rest of the household garbage.

We planted a pretty hibiscus there this time. Ok, the truth is, John planted the tree, and I just took pictures and got bit by ants. So, wish us luck with the new tree. Or I guess wish it luck, weeds seem to grow in that spot just fine, but trees don't seem to do so well.