The Memory of Trees

Heart of the Tree

I have spent all my life living in the Pacific Northwest. Trees are a huge part of the landscape here. I can't imagine living somewhere that there are only a few trees. In our yard alone we have about 10 evergreen trees. (edited: My husband read this post and informed me that we actually have like 30 trees in the yard. I didn't want to go out and actually count so I estimated). These trees are probably all around 40 years old and big. Our yard isn't huge but the trees line each side of our property. I also take lots of pictures of trees.

Here's the stump

My husband recently cut down one of the trees in the yard. It was a cottonwood and HUGE. It was probably about 30 years old. Unfortunately, one of its LARGE branches was dead; it was also only a few feet from our house. We live on the coast and have frequent wind storms. Gusts in the 60's are not unheard of; a few years ago a storm brought 90 mph winds. My husband has also recently redone all the siding and windows in our home. Which is why it was necessary to cut the tree down. I'm really sad to see it gone; as are the birds that made it their home. This spring we will be looking for a new tree to plant. Not quite sure where we will plant it yet, but it wont be right on top of the house.

We've owned our house for probably about 15 years now and lived here for just about 10. We have yanked English Ivy off that tree, walked by it, leaned things on it and watched the birds play in it. It has seen wind storms, rain, snow, barbecues, the annual dandelion war and so many other of our memories. So this song is for the tree . . . meanwhile, we get to figure out what kind of tree to plant next.

This post is part of the Ultimate Blog Challenge. I am going to really get this blog going. So I decided I'd join the Challenge. The goal of the challenge is to post 31 posts in the month of January and to get more traffic to my blog and to other blogs. This is post number 15. For more info or to join the challenge check the link below.