The beauty of these three snow laden trees brought me out with my camera. These are special trees for our family. Our good friends, Larry, Colleen, and Kiana came to visit us from Alaska shortly after we moved back to my home state and purchased Dunrovin.
We were very busy planting tress to create an orchard, battling the “old growth nap weed” forest that dominated our fields and turn them into lush green horse pastures, building fences and sheds and barns, and basically settling in to a new way of life centered around horses and dogs and river and fields. We naturally engaged them in our endeavors – and one day they showed up with three small spruce trees to plant. We have thought of them over and over again as we have watched these trees grow and thrive.
Our friends have since moved to Missoula. They are been there for us through my recent years of illness and our trials with Missoula County. She owns a horse of her own and is rapidly becoming an accomplished horsewoman; he has helped us on many occasions with many projects leaving quality, artistic work wherever he goes; and Kiana is a lovely young woman about to graduate from high school with a stellar academic record. These are friends that have long ago melded into family and we are thankful for them every day. We rejoice in these trees.
Once outside, I couldn’t help myself from wondering around. Somehow just holding a camera brings details of the world into focus. I kept seeing reminders of summer that were piled high with snow – the picnic tables, the sitting benches, the fit pit with it up turned chairs, the barrels empty of flowers, the garden wagons and wheel barrel. They all sat there so quietly and contentedly in their winter white while they waited for the visitors of summer to return.
