Our backyard has been the size of three city lots but will soon be reduced to a modest strip of grass, a small garden area, a good-sized patio, and some wonderful bushes. The wildness of our former yard, sixteen nordic spruces edging the house, fully triple the height of our two story home, and their incredible root systems, bird nests, hammock hooks, scavenger debris and possibility of buried treasure - all that mysterious goodness is part of the old backyard. We are fortunate enough to sell that lot but oh the wildness! What a loss!
I will miss it.
In the pounding heat of mid-August, stepping under their shade with a picnic blanket and cold chocolate cake is heavenly. Fully ten degrees cooler and deeeeep.
Watching the children dig in the dirt from the kitchen window, serious stuff with shovels, pails, trench-work, is balm to a busy mother's soul.
Under those trees I sang to my babies, swung them in the hammock, looked at picture books to help along a tedious afternoon.
Together we have looked into their needle-y hearts from the upstairs windows and wondered at the bird activity.
If you closed your eyes, hearing the wind through them was like being at the foot of the Pacific or at the crest of Quartz Mountain.
I understand that change is good, bad, impossible to avoid. Selling this lot and adjusting will bring new joys and challenges to me and my family. I'm glad though to consider those spruces, the history they have stood over, the other children who have enjoyed their solace, and to thank God Almighty for trees! What would we do without them?
Photo by Maria Orlova from Pexels