For the Love of Trees
I am, and have always been, a lover of trees.
Climbing trees was one of my favorite things to do when I was a kid.
I wasn’t very discriminating, either. Big ones, smaller ones, pine or maple-it didn’t matter to me. I’d climb as high as I dared , hug the trunk, and enjoy the view.
There was a kind of safety to be found sitting in the sturdy branches, camouflaged by the beautiful leaves.
Sitting up in the trees alone, I’d share my deepest secrets. Climbing trees with siblings or friends, they became our playground.
Trees defy gravity all their lives succumbing to it, finally (sometimes), in death. Or they stand in continued defiance just so the hawks have a perch to hunt from and the woodpeckers a good place to peck.
I went to college to earn a degree in Forestry (an AAS) and fell even more in love with trees. The Adirondack Mountains were the backdrop, trees were everywhere. What could be better?
If forced to pick a favorite, I think it would be the sugar maple. I love its orange display in fall. I love the helicopter seeds it drops. As kids, we used to collect up as many seeds as we could hold and throw them up in the air reveling in their little twirly-bird decent back to earth.
You can climb a maple without getting sap in your hair.
And what about maple syrup?
But there are so many species, each with something special to offer.
What about that stand of quaking aspens in Utah believed to be the largest living organism on earth? They are all genetically alike and share a massive root system. Amazing!
I love looking up the trunk of a beech tree (you know, the massive, grey, smooth-ish ones people carve their initials into) and looking at the summer sun filtering through their beautiful leaves.
I used to love driving back home in fall. Going from Georgia through Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, and Pennsylvania before arriving in New York, there would be breathtaking vistas everywhere.
In winter, I love the paper birches on the mountains and hillsides of Vermont, the beauty of their bark against the starker white of the snow.
Spring in Georgia is for the Dogwoods. They are a beautiful under-story tree, their branches all reaching out for a bit of sun. In the spring, when the trees around them are bare and they get that warming spring sunshine, they blossom out into little jewels in a barren landscape, welcoming spring as only they can.
I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree… Joyce Kilmer
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I am a tree hugger to Carol. Somehow back in the late ’90s I was talked into joining the EA village tree board. Eventually I was crazy enough to agree to chair the board, which I did for nine years. In that time I learned so much about our gentle giant friends, and was responsible for planting well over 700 village trees in the park and along the streets. I could never name a favorite, but I think the sugar maple is near the top of my favorites. I remember climbing trees with you when we were kids, and I remember your mother showing me a tree that she and Sarah planted as a seed. It still grows strong by the back of your old garage. Your mother was in awe on that tree- from the tiny seed a mighty tree grew!
Nancy, I’m quite impressed by that! Thank you for adding so many trees to our beautiful community! Wasn’t it an awesome treat climbing trees when we were kids? That tree by the garage-my kids climbed it when they were kids. We had to boost them up to get in it, but they climbed what they could climb (this had to be almost 30 years ago!) I think trees were one of God’s best ideas!
Trees are one of my most favorite things in this whole wild world! When I read “For the Love of Trees” this is what came to my mind.
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life; which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart (i carry it in my heart) E.E. Cummings
Thank you Carol for my weekly dose of sanity 🙂
Grace, why have I never come across this poem before? It’s beautiful. Before I got to the end, I thought it was your thoughts and it was a bit of a let down that you didn’t author this! But you carry it in your heart, and I thank you for sharing it with me!
I was at the Flanigans (there real name) a few months ago and they asked me to retell the story of “the garage tree” I told them that story and added the Mema tree trimming story. Mr.F couldn’t figure how a tree that size hadn’t busted thru the garage floor being its only18 inches from the wall. As Pops had told me when they poured the floor, concrete was cheap and the truck driver had 3 extra yards soooo the garage floor is about 2 feet thick.
Before I left I was assured the tree was in good hands and other than an occasional trim would grow as long as the good Lord wanted.
I’m so glad it’s not in danger! I love that tree! Thanks for keeping an eye on things! ❤️❤️❤️