We had been in this neighborhood for less than two years. It was our second spring. Less than a block from where we lived is a park. This tree is in the far west corner of the park. In the absence of snow, this picture has all of the makings of a black and white picture of a tree in winter; stark, no leaves, perhaps giving the feeling of a winter day.
But what you cannot see in this picture is that the vast, vast majority of trees and plants in the neighborhood, and they were in abundance, on this late April 2017 day, were in full bloom . . . except for this one tree. I thought, perhaps, this tree was diseased or dying or dead. However, as I would see in all of the years following, it was a very late bloomer with the buds on the limbs not showing until well into May. Then, almost magically, it transitioned into one of the most plush trees in the area.
In this picture I simply stood with my back against the tree, looked up, and took the picture. A rather interesting picture of a counterintuitive tree.