I Think I Shall Never See…
Trees have a profound impact on us: they touch our hearts in big ways that affect our lives.
If and when we plant them ourselves, they have even greater meaning. After we had built our house in 1975, the first thing we did was get permission from the Forestry Reserve to go and dig out two fir trees.
That Sunday it was an expedition. We donned our boots, took our shovels and set off. The process of choosing which ones would be perfect for the new berm we had built to plant them on was arduous – so many to choose from!
Even the youngster, Jane, had important opinions on the perfect little seedlings. Finally, we decided: a set of twins and a singling. When we got home, we rushed to get them into the soil to water them so they wouldn’t dry out with the hope they would settle in nicely. And they did!
To be honest we didn’t think much more about them, as you do. Oh, we watered them and propped them up in the fierce winds of winter, but we generally just took them for granted as you do when things in our lives become established.
Time passed… the little trees thrived and shaded us in summer, protected the car from hail in the hot summer thunderstorms, and parked the car under them in winter as shelter from the snow.
50 years passed; now we have a new luxury home next door and we are wanting solar panels on the roof. The only solution was to take down our precious single tree so the sun could reach the roof from the west. We also had to “spiralize” our daughter Jane’s grade three seedling – now 53 years old, an 80-foot glorious fir tree in the backyard, to have the sun reach the roof from the east. Aughghgh! We all shed tears; the husband is still crying.
To save energy we had to do it. The arborist came; the deed was done! We knew for sure we had to save a tall, healthy stump so that a large planter of flowers could reside on top.
Because the tree had been placed on the berm, I saw an opportunity for art! I could see the beginnings of huge roots and the next thought was: if I dug out all the earth surrounding the roots I could create a sculpture. So, for seven days, ten hours a day you would find me belly down pulling out the soil so you could see under and between the roots. I was astonished at the size of the roots; they had even grown over the edge of the driveway!
Every ounce of energy was worth it. We created a plaque to tell the story of the tree:
“I was born in a forestry reserve. In 1975, Norm, Jane and Joey chose me, took me home and gently planted me. I’ve had a good life. Now I am Nature’s Work of Art. Revealed by Joey Stewart 2025”.
Title taken from Joyce Kilmer’s 1913 poem “Trees”.
Photo credits: Lorne Kingwell
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