Oh, Arizona

Now, I'm from Colorado - a semi-arid desert. Trees don't grow like weeds by any means, but they do grow. There was a tree I once claimed as 'mine' that started growing the year I was born in the back yard of the house in which I first lived. It was 40 feet tall by the time we moved to our second Fort Collins home.

Things are different here. It's not the soil's fault. It's designed for tumbleweeds and scorpions, not trees or water. But they are planted in all neighborhoods here. When landscapers need to strengthen a tree, they'll commonly place stakes on opposite sides of it to give it support and help it grow up straight. In Utah and Colorado, these are usually reusable green steel stakes about 4 feet tall.

Here, it's not the same. The stakes are made out of wood. It's pretty weird. Two thick wooden stakes are put alongside a minuscule diameter of a tree. So, it's like two big trees had to be chopped down in Vancouver or Brazil or Vermont or Bali so we could grow a little bitty tree here. I'm certain this image is rash with symbolism about sacrifice (The Giving Tree, etc.), but I'd rather not go there. Suffice it to say - it's special.