Ode to the Japanese Maple in the Back Garden during Autumn

When the house was first purchased, not long after my Wasband and I married in April of 2004, my mother purchased this weeping Japanese Maple for us from a nursery out in Clackamas County. 

If you know anything about the nursery trade in Oregon, there are certain plants or trees which are raised like puppies in puppy mills and the Japanese Maple is one of them. 

When Mom found the poor thing after it had been mistreated rather badly and the trunk was very deformed. [If you look very closely at the very bottom of this photo (above) you will see a sort of ledge where the innocent little thing was choked.] She was able to buy it, and another, at a great deep discount.  

During the worst of times, pruning this thing became a form of meditation for me. I love nothing more than pruning weeping Japanese Maples. It's a thing I have for making them weep I guess because the key is to let them drape and flow like waterfalls. 

Do not think that I am an expert on this subject though because this one hasn't been shaped up for awhile. 

There was a beastly vine too who chocked out a section in the back and it still hasn't grown back in just yet. 

Of the few Japanese maples I have left in the garden now it is by far my favorite at this time of the year because of its bright color.