there's a magnolia at the corner. i know that one because the flowers are unmistakable in march, and because the man who owns the cafe told me.

there's a london plane two blocks down. i know that one because i looked it up on a website with a leaf identifier, and the leaves matched.

the rest are still strangers. but every walk i learn one more thing — a bark texture, the shape of the seed pods, how the branches sit. soon, i hope, we'll all be on first-name terms.