Cortes blossoms

Fall is here again for us.  This is the time of year that the trees shed their leaves and go dormant during the dry season.  However, many trees blossom this time of year and show their brilliant colors, if only for a few short days.  This is the Cortes tree that towers over our house.  The Cortes is a VERY hard wood, fires can't even burn them down.  We have one that has been laying in the horse pasture for the four years that we have been here, probably at least another 4 before we got here, and it has about 1/4 inch of rot on it and still weighs a ton.  Any other tree would be almost gone by now.

The Cortes blooms once per year and can be seen from miles around.  We can spot our particular tree from about 2 miles down the road.