"Where E're You Walk..."

What would I see today that I hadn't seen before?  It was cloudy and overcast with showers shortly before I left but now it was mild and sweet.  I really noticed the trees today, towering and stately evergreens, lofty and airy deciduous trees and smaller species such as the beautiful white Dogwood, British Columbia's floral emblem... 

-as soon as the blooms are spent, this Dogwood tree will once again blend into the background totally unnoticed until next spring...

The Lilac tree I'd enjoyed over the past two weeks, still deliciously fragrant...

-no tree here, just purple perennial salvias among waving, wispy grasses and aspiring day lilies...

-beautifully barked birches...

...and the trees reminded me of songs and poems I'd learned in school
 so many years ago...

"When I see birches bend to left and right 

Across the lines of straighter darker trees,

I like to think some boy's been swinging them." 

Robert Frost

-canopy of birches...

"I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

  

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me.

But only God can make a tree."

 Trees by Joyce Kilmer 1886-1918

...among the weeping willows...

a Douglas Fir seed cone tells me the name of its parent evergreen overhead.*

Trees, trees everywhere...and even though it isn't necessary to seek out their shade on this pleasant spring day I'm reminded of George Frederich Handel's  beautiful composition,

HANDEL: "Where E'er You Walk" - YouTube

 

"Where e'er you walk, cool gales shall fan the glade;
Trees where you sit shall crowd into a shade,

 Trees where you sit shall crowd into a shade."

-and among the reeds and rushes and trees at waters' edge,
 the pretty yellow water iris are nodding their heads...

"Where e'er you tread, the blushing flower shall rise,

And all things flourish, and all things flourish,

Where e'er you turn your eyes, where e'er you turn your eyes

Where e'er you turn your eyes."

It is another glorious day...thank you, dear Lord!

*there is a legend about little mice in the forests, scurrying to safety at the sound of danger.  The mice scurry into the nearby evergreen cones scattered on the forest floor with only their tiny hind feet and tails exposed.  Now you never need go wrong identifying the Douglas Fir tree by its cone.