Day 277 - The berries of the mountain ash

There was a small mountain ash tree on the front lawn of one of our elderly neighbours when I was growing up. I remember be fascinated by the bright orange berries that popped out at the end of the summer, providing ample ammunition for attacks on friends and siblings alike.

We have four mountain ashes on our property here in Fredericton and I am still very fond of them, no matter how terrible a mess they make when the berries fall. Forester friends tell me that this breed is a "weed tree" in that it is not native to the area and grows fast and free whereever it seeds itself. That's fine. Mountain ashes are weed trees. But they're pretty and, for me at least, filled with both memories and, from time to time, cedar waxwings.