A tree grows in...my garage?

There is much to report on my weekend in Cincinnati, but I'll start with the story of the lilac tree -- only because I mobile blogged that picture from the drive home.

I'll have to rewind to mid-January when we were getting ready to move out of our house. I spent a number of days embroiled in teeny projects to beautify our already beautiful home. Well, it got to a point that I was really just trying to occupy myself before the Big Move. That became obvious when I embarked on the now-infamous lilac tree and bird feeder projects in quick succession.

The bird feeder project entailed digging up a copper-topped feeder attached to a 10-foot-tall wooden post that was apparently cemented into the back yard. (We only learned this after I spent about two hours -- and then made Patrick spend an hour -- pushing the feeder and its post back and forth and back and forth at 15 degree angles and then 30 degree angles and then 45 degree angles until we made a giant muddy hole in the back yard and still had to saw the feeder from its base.) Note to self: Having a two-foot-wide hole in the middle of your back yard before you plan to sell a house is not exactly bright. But I will say that I'm thrilled I'll be transporting that bird feeder to our new house one day.

The second project was the lilac tree project. Our previous realtor told us we'd have to trim the lilac tree at the corner of our porch or turn it because it was hanging over the walkway at a funny angle. Well, I decided, why turn it when I can just take it?

Poor Patrick came home that day to find a big hole in the front garden next to the porch and a tree sitting in the middle of our driveway. It was about a half-day project to travel to the little garden center, buy burlap and twine and dirt so we could learn to make our very own root ball. After a lot of sweat and a fair amount of cursing... success! We made the most beautiful root ball you had ever seen.

But when it came down to the last minute, we couldn't fit the tree in our U-haul. And we were so crunched for time that we couldn't even replant it before we had to head out for the Big Move.

Alas, we carefully put it back in the garage -- where it hopefully would stay warm -- and I said goodbye. (I knew, of course, that it would not survive, and I was broken-hearted by my silliness for digging it up.)

So imagine my surprise when we opened the garage door three months later during our quick Cincinnati visit to find the lilac tree not only alive...but flowering!

Needless to say, I was not going to leave that tree again -- that resilient, spunky tree -- so we pushed aside everything in the Vue, cut a few branches off the top and drove the 259 miles with flowering lilac tree branches curling at our shoulders and poking at our elbows.

But what joy! I can't wait to plant it. And I pray that it makes it.