Happy Summer Solstice, everyone. (Officially at 1:16 p.m. EDT around here)
I remember last year becoming depressed at summer solstice, the longest day of the year. Why, you ask, would that make me sad? It’s the day of most sunlight! The reason was because I knew from that day on, until the winter solstice six months away, that the days would get shorter, and dark would come earlier and remain around longer.
This summer solstice, I think about trees. I miss my wooded neighborhood.
My husband and I came home at noon today for lunch. At 12:20 p.m., we heard a house-rattling thump. We stared at one another for a moment. It was a familiar sound; last heard three weeks ago when the tornado pushed trees onto our house. Today, there was no wind or rain outside at 12:20, so we looking out our windows to investigate. Seems our next door neighbor decided to sell his three remaining, living oak trees to the tree-buying guy who canvassed our neighborhood after the storm. One, he didn’t want any of our trees. Two, besides our little red-bud and smaller dogwood, since the storm those three 100’ trees in our neighbor’s yard were the only morning shade for our backyard. Our neighbor on our other side, who owns the once-wooded lot separating our two houses, also sold his living and fallen forest to the tree-buying guy. My two little flowering trees look very, very lonely.
The three trees being felled are on our neighbor’s property, right next to the boundary line. They are his trees. They belong to him. So why did I start crying when I realized living trees were getting cut for money, not just the storm-fallen ones?
I think a part of me truly relates to T.A. Barron’s Tree Girl.
It’s painful to me to see (and hear and feel) mature trees cut needlessly – just for money. I wouldn’t do very well in the Rain Forest area – unless I could play in the forest. (I’m thinking Fern Gully here, too.) I love the woods. I miss the woods around where I live. I don’t really think of myself as a radical tree-hugger type. I’m just a lakes and woodland girl. I need to remember this feeling.
That said, … I need to change my thinking, and plan what to plan in my now-prairie yard. It’s comparatively a blank slate. I’m thinking veggie garden… with tree saplings on the east and north sides which will grow tall in the future.
Author Sandy Carlson 
It’s so sad to lose trees. We lost many giants due to Emerald Ash Borer. To chop down healthy trees is terrible. I hope your saplings grow quickly.
I think trees are priceless and beautiful and it is awful that you have lost so many mature trees in your area at the same time! I would be angry at the neighbour that is allowing the living trees to be cut. However, he may have a good reason. In the wake of the damage caused by the storm, perhaps he is really strapped for cash. When you are planting on your lot, maybe you can consider a mix of fast growing and slow growing trees. We have a couple wild black locusts that sprouted on our lot about six years ago and they grew really fast and provide some shade. I know they are not as wonderful as 100′ trees, but as Mick Jagger says: “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you get what you need.” 🙂 Best wishes ~ Kim
Thanks Kim — for so much! I indeed have been thinking about what trees to plant. I hadn’t gotten as far asto thinking about the fast-growing and slow-growing ones. Still wating to get our house fixed and power to our home office/den and bedroom (after the walk-in opening gets fixed). I think I want to be a fast-growing tree, when I know I must be a slow-growing one.