Early Bloom

We have this huge tree in our backyard (which incidentally was one of the selling points of the house for me). Over the three years that we have lived here, a couple of the massive branches have fallen down due to some poor pruning techniques by the previous owner (great red colored wood), and some very heavy rains or winds. We have now taken a much more ruthless approach to taking care of this tree and hope that it will be around to support the hammock this summer (great place to listen to baseball games on the radio- although a little too far from the bathroom after all of the requisite ball game beers), and many more to come. We were told that it is an African Sumac. It has leaves year round, and at this time of the year, it flowers and scents the entire neighbourhood (ok, there are a few others around that contribute to the odor). The first photo is of the tree in early December, and the second one is from last week. It is a little hard to really because each individual flower is so small.