The beauty of bark

Some days it doesn't take much to amuse me. The other day, tired from dragging hoses around to our dozens of drought-stricken trees and shrubs (and getting ready for the house-sitter, who is even now babysitting the cats and plants so I can enjoy my sabbatical in Toledo), I happened to notice the slant evening light on a backyard white oak.

A little later, the sunset actually turned the bark red: 

Being a longtime treehugger (sometimes literally), I had to see what was happening with the bark of some of the other tree species inhabiting the yard and discovered the following:

the skinlike bark of holly

and the wonderful cragginess of white pine.

A further meander revealed that red maple bark

sometimes grows its own ecosystem.

Being easily amused isn't such a bad thing.