They started appearing right away on Dec. 26: pines and firs on the sidewalk, discarded as people who'd been home for Christmas took off for someplace else for new year's eve. The suddenness and lack of sentimentality of that quick discard has always made me laugh. The trees continue to come out for the next few weeks; up until Jan. 14th, the city will pick them up and mulch them, and spread the mulch on city parks. Not exactly an ecological loop, but a nice green thread. But the trees keep coming. There are always some in February, and a few in March. And in this neighborhood, one or two in May. Makes me curious about the piles of back issues of magazines in the apartments those trees come out of.