Friday, May 31, 2013

Back to reality.

You may have noticed a lack of posts over the past week or so.  Well, that's because I took my beertography dog and pony show on the road to Europe.  International Beertography!  Or maybe it was a vacation with The Husband.  Either way, I was overseas and not interested in blogging.  But that doesn't mean that I didn't drink plenty of beer, photograph it and possibly even jog down some sloppy notes.

However, returning from a 19 day kid-free vacation to a home with no food and a few kids who are now on summer break and want to be entertained has left me with little to no motivation to a) stay up past 9pm or b) sit in front of a computer and think/read/write.  None-the-less, I had a beer tonight (YAY) while cleaning the pool (boo) and figured I should.   
The Tree, 4 years ago.

You see, we have this tree.  

It is a magnificently beautiful shade tree that happens to puke yellow blooms every year.  It is perfectly shaped, always green and shades half of the back of our house year round.  Every spring it seems to turn yellow as it is covered with small bright yellow flowers.  These flowers all fall directly into our pool.  And by fall, I actually mean cover the entire surface of and choke the pump nearly to death.  And once wet, these blooms smell funky and the smell lingers (like on my hands...right now).  And attract flies in the yard.  Gross.

The Palo Verde was named the official state tree of Arizona in 1954. The name literally means "green stick" in Spanish as it literally relies on its green stems and branches to help with photosynthesis.  The Palo Verde is a relatively small tree that can reach a height of approximately 32 feet and have a trunk diameter of up to 2 feet. Because it is a tree native to the desert, it comes fully equipped with a deep root system which allows it to tap into the ground water and survive periods of drought.  This is part of the reason we bought it -- to avoid roots pushing through the walls of our pool.  We never thought the blooms would be such a deal breaker.  And yes, I've done quite a bit of research to try to determine if there are any quirky ways to force the tree to stop blooming.

This year we thought we were going to escape the wrath of our beautiful tree.  As of May 9, it had about 3 blossoms total.  A-typical and nearly at the end of the blooming period for these trees.  So we hired a pool guy to help this summer (best decision ever) and asked our neighbor to come empty the skimmer basket once a day if he happened to see blooms on the tree.

Sorry neighbor.


Rolle Bolle (5.5% ABV) -- Summer Seasonal
New Belgium Brewing
Fort Collins, Colorado

So cheers to you tree.  You have been beautiful and helpful over the past four years but you will only live long enough to shade the back of our house another summer.

Rating:  Sadly, this beer is nothing special.  Just another summer brew from New Belgium.  Somewhat uninspiring.  Although I do think that people who don't normally like beer but do enjoy white wine may enjoy this beer.  The taste is somehow familiar.  

Recommendations:  DO NOT PLANT A PALO VERDE TREE NEAR A POOL, EVER.  But if you want a fast-growing, no-water tree to provide shade in your yard, these are wonderful trees.