“I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.”
– Henry David Thoreau
“For me, trees have always been the most penetrating preachers.
I revere them when they live in tribes and families, in forests and groves. And even more I revere them when they stand alone.
They are like lonely persons.
Not like hermits who have stolen away out of some weakness, but like great, solitary men, like Beethoven and Nietzsche. In their highest boughs the world rustles, their roots rest in infinity; but they do not lose themselves there, they struggle with all the force of their lives for one thing only: to fulfill themselves according to their own laws, to build up their own form, to represent themselves. Nothing is holier, nothing is more exemplary than a beautiful, strong tree.”
– Hermann Hesse, Wandering: Notes and Sketches (1920)
Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England (2019)
Bletchley Park, once the top-secret home of the World War II Codebreakers, is now a vibrant heritage attraction.
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I feel that a man may be happy in this world, and I know that this world is a world of imagination and vision. I see everything I paint in this world, but everybody does not see alike. To the eyes of a miser a guinea is more beautiful than the sun, and a bag worn with the use of money has more beautiful proportions than a vine filled with grapes. The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing which stands in the way.
– William Blake (1757 – 1827), the Letters, 23 August 1799
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Santa Monica, California (2022)
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Moreton Bay fig or Australian banyan (Ficus macrophylla)
Centennial Park, Sydney, Australia
Trees. I love trees.
I love everything about trees, all types of trees, and have always been a “tree-hugger,” even as a small child. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to immerse myself in the healing powers of trees, even though I grew up in an urban city. I crave the voiceless companionship of trees, their inherent wisdom, and the oxygen they emit. When I hang out with trees, I always feel connected to something bigger than myself.
For example, the mature Moreton Bay fig tree graces my family home in Los Feliz, Los Angeles. It is now 106 years old. Landscape architect Wilbur Cook planted These Moreton Bays on Vermont Avenue in 1913. I had never given much thought to the origin of these trees until I visited Australia for the first time and saw them throughout the capital city of Sydney, learning that Australia is their native home.
The first fig seeds and saplings arrived in Southern California in 1875 when Elijah Hook Workman (1835–1906), a pioneer agriculturist, planted these trees around Los Angeles Plaza as part of an early civic beautification program.
The Moreton Bay fig tree is a member of the Ficus family (Ficus macrophylla) and is native to the subtropical rainforests of the eastern coast of Australia. A Moreton Bay fig can grow to about 75 feet tall, with its branches stretching to 150 feet wide or more. The sweet, globular fruits are an important source of food for animals.
Royal Botanical Gardens, Sydney, Australia
© 2019 April, Melissa A. Rendsburg
©2024, Melissa A. Rendsburg, M.A.
England's Mountains Green 