Strange title, perhaps, but this really is about a tree. We have a white pine in our yard, right behind our deck. It shades the deck in summer and provides a visual screen against traffic on a busy street. While it’s not my favorite tree in the world, it serves a useful purpose; I’d say it’s convenient.

I noticed about a week ago that a lot of its needles were browning, and a few had started to fall off. Within a few days, brown needles were raining down on our deck and the ground, and I started wondering if we were going to lose this giant of a tree.

How worried was I? Worried enough that the first thing I did when I woke up way too early on this Saturday morning was run a Google search to find out what was going on. And it turns out that my tree isn’t dying; this is a normal seasonal fall of needles for a white pine tree, according to at least three state university extension services.

So my weekend has begun with good news. I’m looking forward to the rest of it.