Happy Arbor Day!

(Every year since I graduated from high school, I have written to my friends on National Arbor Day--to send well-wishes and a note of hope, wherever everyone may have scattered. Now that I have the amazing good fortune to serve in the most local of representative roles, one of the things about it I’m most grateful for is that it has led me to so many, many friends throughout the neighborhoods of our district. So: Welcome to the Arbor Day list!)

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Dear Friends,

Happy Arbor Day! As we come into a new spring, may the buds we see be buds of hope. With love, as always, Clay

"The fact is, Maples have a far more sophisticated system for detecting spring than we do. There are photosensors by the hundreds in every single bud, packed with light-absorbing pigments called phytochromes. Their job is to take the measure of light every day. Tightly furled, covered in red-brown scales, each bud holds an embryonic copy of a maple branch, and each bud wants desperately to someday be a full-fledged branch, leaves rustling in the wind and soaking up sun. But if the buds come out too soon they'll be killed by freezing. Too late and they'll miss the spring. So the buds keep the calendar."

     - from Braiding Sweetgrass, Robin Wall Kimmerer, 2013