My Favorite Tree

~ I'm glad the sky is painted blue,

And the earth is painted green,

With such a lot of nice fresh air

All sandwiched in between. ~

- Anonymous 

After a long, harsh winter we are finally seeing blue skies and green earth once again!

It's like medicine for my soul to get out on our trails in early spring.

It feels like I'm reuniting with an old friend.

"Hellloooo!!! How was your winter? It's good to see you again!" I whisper as I walk along.

I have the same route and the same destination each time...

From out the kitchen door I head toward the barn and pass by the orchard...

(Our fruit trees are beginning to bud!)

Then I cross over to the main trail and head down the hill until I see my favorite spot... My favorite tree!

In only a couple of short months my tree will be full of lush green leaves, ready at any moment to shade me perfectly while I sit in my swing.

(Notice the little swing in the bottom corner of this poem. *smile)

I wonder if it gives the trees as much pleasure to delight us, as the delight we receive from our trees?

I can't be the only one who has a bond with a tree! So, I've been busy trying to find all the poems and stories I can find about trees.

This one is lovely...

"But only God can make a tree." Isn't that a sweet poem?

 I recently found this precious little book in an antique shop...

It's about a boy and his tree.

It reminds me of how my children have been growing up on this tree...

~ "Up into the cherry tree

Who should climb but little me?

I held the trunk with both my hands

And looked abroad on foreign lands. ~

- Robert Louis Stevenson

The kids will climb and play here for hours! And as I sit and swing, I watch them... or I read... or we sing and talk.

Micah built our tree swing for me for my birthday a few summers ago.

I love it!

While looking up poems and stories about trees, I noticed a lot of swings in the illustrations.

I think people love swings!

It's very enjoyable and relaxing to swing!

I remember I loved to swing on the playground as a child.

I would pump my legs to take me as high as I could go, then I'd launch myself out into the air. Haha!

I felt like I was flying! 

The harsh, abrupt landing was worth the thrill of jumping out of the swing.

(My knees wouldn't tolerate anything of this sort now, but I remember how fun that once was!)

"That it will never come again

is what makes life so sweet."

- Emily Dickinson

Do you have a favorite tree?

A favorite route you take on your nature walk each day?

Do you have a swing?

It's the little things in life, isn't it?

Such joy and contentment can be found in the simpleness of home.

(Poems and illustrations in this post are from my collection of Little Golden Books, as well as Two Hundred Best Poems for Boys and Girls by Marjorie Barrows.)

I hope you are enjoying this beautiful spring weather, friends!

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!

xo,

~ Courtney ~