What a Little Rain Does

It's a different world in Santa Fe when it rains. We've had decent monsoon rains this summer and the cottonwood, which I despaired had come to the end of its life last year, has made an astounding recovery.

I've written about this tree before. It's too big, it dominates the house way too far above the roofline, it's messy. It has a sap disease and a mistletoe infestation in the bark. Last year, when we had so little rain and half of the cottonwood looked like it was dying, I had the justification I needed to take it down and replace it with a smaller more landscape-appropriate tree. 

I had just the type of tree I wanted picked out. I talked to my tree guy about it.

And then . . . it rained some this year. It's now green and full and passersby comment on it. It looks healthy. It shades the house beautifully. 

It stays.