It wasn’t until my twenties when I started wearing glasses on a regular basis that I realized trees weren’t green blurs, and most people could distinguish individual leaves. Soon after I noticed trunks in all their artistic contortions, various types of bark and burls. Later I tried my hand at marquetry and became enamored of the grains and patterns in wood.
Example of simple marquetry using four woods.
Earlier this month, I joined a short class, All About Trees, taught by local naturalist Kevin Cook. He handed out the list of trees in our city’s City Park. I live near this park. A few years ago, I noticed tags started appearing on various trees. Through reading the tags and utilizing the map the Forestry Department provides, I started to learn the species of trees, some with wonderful names. Currently I know where many of my favorites are located–the championship larch, some old redbuds, a Siberian Larch, crabapples, and weeping mulberries.
Blooming Redbud near a City Park exit
I liked the challenge of finding and learning more about each of the trees listed in the Self-Guided Tree Tour and thought my husband’s renewed interest in photography would make for an interesting project to tackle together. My plan is to highlight two or more trees per week until we’ve covered as many of the 220+ we are able to locate. Along with pictures of the trees during the season we’re doing the initial writeup, I hope to go back and add photos for the trees during other seasons.
My hope is this blog will be useful to others who are interested in trees in general and those in City Park in particular.
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