Branson, Dogwoods, Redbuds and Spring

Almost 6 weeks of taking care of me and staying pretty close to home was about to get to Gene.  A few days before my knee surgery, we booked an overnight stay for Friday and Saturday at a Rock Lane Resort on Table Rock Lake.  We had thought at the time we booked the stay that we would be ready for a change of scenery.  We were not mistaken.  And the scenery along the way was beautiful.  The forests along the roads are full of dogwood trees, redbuds and all sorts of other blooming flowers.  This sight made me remember some of the fun of designing my backyard.

When I was working on my garden beds we would ride for hours in the backwoods looking at how the vegetation was layered.  As we chose trees and shrubs, the nursery person noted there were generally 5 layers to forests:  forest floor, herb layer, shrub layer, understory and canopy.  Some references add an emergent layer. (http://animals.about.com/od/forest/a/structureforest.htm) We were purchasing a dogwood at the time.  Mr. Nursery Man suggested it be planted as an understory tree.  That is planted beneath larger trees.  I did attempt to use this idea of the layering of the forest.  Only problem is my yard is way to small for the forest I developed.  Oh, well, it is still filled with color right now!

While I do enjoy my yard with all the stuff growing back there, it was sure nice to see the beauty in the natural settings.  We awoke this morning looking across Table Rock Lake.  There was some sort of fishing tournament or something.  The fishermen in their boats were showing up in specific locations in groups.  They would stop, cast a few times then zoom away out of sight to the next cove.  A few minutes later here would come another group speeding into sight.  Stop at almost the exact location as the previous bunch, make a few casts then fly off again.

Gene and I thought about going to a murder mystery dinner theater in Branson.  We chose just to eat at Charlie's Steak and Ribs on sight at the resort.  The spring weather was so warm we were able to sit on the screened porch for our delicious dinner.  Our server was a young 20 something who immigrated from Russia.  She taught us to say thank you, spasiba.  We did not ask if you knew Yakov Smirnoff.

Gene commented as we left that we were taught to hate the Russians back when he was in the service in the late 50's early 60's.  I discussed some of this irony in the Feb. 1, 2012 blog.  Then we began discussion who are being taught to hate now:  Muslims, politicians, Tea Party, Liberals, Conservatives,  Republicans, Democrats, Iran, undocumented immigrants just to name a few.  Who knows what will happen in 2059, maybe our grandsons will come to Branson to watch some of those most hated persons perform.  After all as Yakov says, "What a country!"

But don't you wait 50 years to take a drive down in the hills.  The blooms are at their peak!