Our crabapple tree

I have a love-hate relationship with this crabapple tree. For less than a week every spring, I love it. It is covered with flowers and you can see it all the way up and down the street. People stop and take pictures of it--no kidding! It is gorgeous. This picture does not do it justice.

Twice a year--for more than twice as long as it was pretty--that tree is the bane of my existance. OK, that's a little dramatic, but it is a constant irritation. You see, it's located right outside my back door. In another day or so, the juicy pink blossoms will be tracked into my house. Constantly. For days and days. You can't sweep them; they just roll into little juicy messes. You can't blow them off the sidewalks--they're too sticky. And even if you could, you'd never be able to keep ahead of them.

Flower petal juice stains. It's a real mess. But eventually, they all come down and the sidewalk gets washed and we can forget about the crabapple tree. For a while.

About mid summer, every time the wind blows, little tiny crabapples start raining down on the side walk. They aren't quite as bad because you can sweep them, but they still manage to get tracked in. Crabapple juice stains. It's a real mess. I wonder if they call them crab apples because they make moms crabby?

In the fall, they come down in droves. You can't stay ahead of them. Crabapples everywhere and along with them come the yellow jackets. In the fall we're dodging falling crabapples, trying not to track them into the house (again) and trying not to let yellow jackets follow us into the house-or get stung!

Sigh. It's all about to start all over again. But for now, isn't it pretty?

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