167 Tree hugger redux

Still hugging the trees

The tree hugger in me loves this time of year for the vibrant colors and shades gracing the landscape. I really don’t like fall because winter follows, but I can’t help but embrace the unbelievable tones that assault our senses from many terrific, tremendous trees.

The view from my front porch is especially gorgeous as the cherry trees that explode with amazing vibrant blooms in spring also put on a colorful show in the fall.

I had always heard those wonderful trees were the same as the ones that line the tidal basin in our nation’s capital. I never knew for sure until Savvy Trish was doing some local research and found an article detailing how the trees were acquired.

The information reinforced the stories I had heard. The D.C. trees were donated to the U.S. in the early 1900s by the government of Japan and are famous for the color display around the Tidal Basin each year.

An article by Wayde Byard was printed in The Winchester Star’s May 4, 1982, edition. He explained how two local residents, Withrow Legge, Handley football coach, and Stewart Bell Sr., a member of the Winchester school board, had the idea of obtaining some of those beautiful trees for the Handley High School campus.

With some contacts and ingenuity, the gentlemen pulled it off, and area residents have enjoyed the trees for decades.

Horticulture students at the school planted the trees along the Jefferson Street side of the campus (which is basically my front yard). They have remained there since that day in the 1920s when they were trucked to Winchester and later planted on the campus. Reports were made yearly to the government about the condition of the trees that have survived many a harsh winter.

So that settles that rumor --- those are part of the Japanese trees that came to D.C. so please enjoy them just a little more now that we know for sure the history.

But there are plenty more trees to enjoy around the area and basically anywhere your travels take you. I have made that my mission the last year or so to photograph as many as possible. I even went back through my photos to pull out ones taken in past years.

I started a Pinterest board called Amazing Trees where the photos tell the story. My latest addition is a tree sculpture in the National Art Gallery’s sculpture garden in Washington, D.C. It is a silver color and towers over the landscape. There is something intriguing and appealing about the tree even though it is not real.

I recently found a three-trunk tree that I added to the collection that was part of a miniature golf course. The shade was appreciated in the summer, but I had no idea what was providing it until I looked a little closer --- three trunks.

 

I can even enjoy the palm trees that populate the beachside locations along the southern states. Not any shade for sure but the effect is striking. 

Also, I have to mention the table tree (the name my grandchildren have given it) on the other side of the Handley campus from the cherry trees. The branches have formed a space in the middle with enough space for at least four of them to take a seat --- bench tree might be a better nickname. 

There you have it--the tree hugger is still on the prowl for more amazing, tremendous trees. Take my advice and make the time to look up and around for some special woody friends that you didn’t know existed and maybe you took for granted. But also look down to make sure you don’t trip or fall while gazing upward at the trees. 

Always a tree hugger, Frances