When i moved into the tiny house i noticed a bare-branched bush right off the stairs of the porch underneath the cedar tree that would one day hold an end of the laundry line. I wondered what it was but there were no leaves to identify it by. As spring awoke many other things, even the spanish oak, the bare little bush remained dormant. I eventually broke off a branch to see if there was water in it. It snapped in half easily and appeared dry at the center. I decided the bush was dead and made plans to cut it down for kindling. Then one day i saw something colorful out of the corner of my eye. The bush had erupted with little pink balls. It looked like a scene straight out of some national geographic video on sea anemones. I quickly began googling what kind of tree produced little pink balls on its branches. The answer blew my mind. I had a mimosa tree in the yard. If i let it grow big enough, the bees and butterflies would be attracted to the flowers and i would have a seasonal supply of fresh worms for fishing bait during the time when eggs hatched and worms hung from threads in the tree’s branches, lowering themselves down slowly into the grass. That is, if the thing survived Cashew’s teething phase. Every time i turned around that dog was throwing all her weight backwards trying to rip another branch off the poor tree. She would be giving me crazy-eye while she did it, trying to see if i could see her without letting go of the branch between her teeth.