For the love of Trees

I think that love of trees are in my genes. Mom when she was little (6 months to 11 years) lived at "The Cedars" in Ballarrat, Australia. You see above a picture of the cedar trees which my Mum loved so much as a child. She tells a story of climbing up high into the cedars and I wrote the below poem about her story.

Climbing the Cedars

She climbed up in these cedar trees

She climbed so high she felt the breeze

She felt so grand as she climbed higher

The view was a sight, she was inspired!

However when she looked around

She discovered that she couldn’t get down

A little voice from high above said,

“Help me for I’m filled with dread!”

“I’m up so high and I can’t get down.”

“Is anyone here or are you all in town?”

Mum came out and looked high above

“Hold on tight!” she said with love

“Where is Coral?” Grandfather asked

“When I find her, I’ll take her to task.

“I know that she is only ten”

“But she’s been in my tools again.”

Mum said, “Finding your tools will have to wait.”

“She’s up in the tree again, in quite a state!”

Brother Laurie helped her down, he saved the day

Coral dried her tears and ran off to play

By Carol A. Ayraud

We planted this Maple tree in Flagstaff and it is alight with a red fire for a short time in the Fall. Arizona really does have seasons contrary to popular ideas. When I was a kid we lived next to one of our Phoenix canals which had a lot of Cottonwood trees which turned yellow in the Fall and rained white cotton seeds in the spring. Mom and Dad planted a lot of trees. We loved the fruit trees best. We had 2 Apricot trees. I used to sit up in the Apricot tree for hours, reading and eating the best tasting apricots ever. They spoiled me for store bought apricots which are tasteless. Right outside my window was a Tangerine tree, next there was a pink grapefruit, next to it a naval orange, then 2 plums and a pecan.
Aspen trees in the Fall
I like standing below, looking up into the tallest branches of a tree. I think that some of my best pictures are from the ground looking up.
These are Arizona Cypress in a side canyon of Oak Creek
This is a Ponderosa Pine. One tree in the largest stand of Ponderosa pines in the world.
Gum tree in Australia from the bottom up
There's a track winding back to an old fashioned shack on a road in Kangaroo Island. Actually, I grew up singing, "Road to Gundiguy". We liked the verse, " There's water in the petrol tank and sand in the gears, she hasn't seen a quart of oil in over 40 years, but Oh Lord, how we roared in that old fashioned Ford On the Road to Gundiguy." You see Eucalyptus Trees elsewhere in the world. Well they all came from Australia. Did you know that there are over 500 different kinds of gum trees? Koalas eat only 48 of these Eucalyptus and the trees supply all their food and water!