Renewal

Dear Diary,

Auntie's Tree has lived behind my house for 20 years now.  A few years ago it began suffering attacks of apple blight which causes the leaves to wither, turn brown and fall off in mid-summer.  I have tried and tried to find a solution but nothing I do seems to stop it.  Yet, every spring the tree sprouts new leaves and I see the first signs of the red leaves appearing.  The tree renews itself despite its terrible trials the summer before and I find that a very comforting thought.  Our torrential rains of yesterday turned to snow and ice and now back to rain this morning but Auntie's Tree soldier's on as we all must now.