The first photo is of a little tree on the corner of Spruce and 18th. A couple years ago there was an old silver maple inside the corner fence that blew down---I remember it happened a couple minutes after Ron walked over to my place during one of our fierce windstorms. We all were stood around and gaped at the fallen tree in amazement: kids hopped up on the trunk that was straddling the sidewalk. The tree was summarily cut up and hauled away and the fence repaired, and I had a feeling the neighbors wouldn't think to replace the old tree with a young version of silver maple. There's a mulberry tree in the alley across from my house which the birds love, and one of them must have dropped the right seed at the right time because, lo and behold, from the old silver maple stump sprouted the wild and crazy bush-like growth of a young mulberry tree. They grow like crazy tangled hair, branches and sprouts every which way, no order, it's hard to even see a main trunk. During one of our heavy snowstorms in the fall the top of the little volunteer mulberry snapped off completely. Not to be deterred, it came back more vigorous than ever, and now provides very sweet tasty berries to alert passersby. They're sweet like sun-ripened blackberries. A little free neighborhood juice bar.
The second photo shows a tree along the 'Bolder Boulder' route back in the Newlands area, near Cedar. It's a got quite the spread of exuberant branches and is simply loaded with fruit. I can hear some very happy bird flocks watching out for those berries to ripen in the next few days.
Don't be afraid to sample these wonderful berries. They're digestible, delicious, and might bring out the songbird in you while you pluck them with purple stained fingers!
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