Early morning arbutus trees

Early this morning I woke to see the sun shining on the trunk of the big arbutus outside the window. It was so beautiful that it drew me outside for a morning walk. The dogs came along of course and we wound our way down the hill towards the beach, startled a deer feeding on someone's lawn, romped a bit in the park and then came back up some rickety wooden steps to the road. Along the way I took some photos of various arbutus trees.

These trees are unique to the west coast of Canada and the United States. They are stunning with their reddish peeling bark that reveals a pale green inner layer.



The glossy green leaves also change to a soft yellow colour throughout the year.



It produces little white bell flowers in the spring and red berries in the fall.. The branches take a curving shape and keep this as they grow. And--they grow to be huge giants over time.



The tree outside our house is by our guess at least 150 feet tall. We're lucky to have such a beauty in our yard--even though it creates a lot of raking with its shedding bark, leaves and flowers.