Outback in the woods today 160106

I started out at 7:40 this morning to take this picture.
The sun was up just above the eastern horizon and not yet up into the cloud cover. 
The colors were, I thought, impressive.

The trees with leaves are oaks, holding their leaves into spring.
Those without are elms.
Later today in the afternoon I went out for a walk and to lop off some wild grape vines that grow huge and fast here.
The grape vines harm and can kill some of the trees and worst case add weight so when ice storms arrive they add to limb damage.
I was out there walking and loping, doing a mindless task which like when mowing grass usually brings odd thoughts into my head.
First thing that popped into my mind was the useless small cedar trees that grow all over the place.
The word useless made me think of the name Eustace, which was an often used name decades and even centuries ago.
That reminded me of a Catholic nun who taught in the grade school I attended. 
Her taken name was Sister Mary Eustace, but kids in her class called her Sister Mary Useless.
Cruel, but that is the way kids were.
Later today I checked the mail and found a Burgess seed catalog in the mailbox.
That in itself would not be strange here at this time of year.
What was surprising was we have not ordered anything from that company in more than 20 years, but they keep sending them every year.