Love Affair with Trees #SundayStills

I don’t recall being surrounded by many trees in my youth unless we were in a city park.

Now, as I’m approaching a new decade, I can admit to have established my home in the middle of many, many trees and my appreciation for their beauty, shelter and grandness has grown. They provide a source of inspiration, strength and even wisdom.

Tree Framed Trails

The photos this week are to show off trees and leaves. My favorite photos of trees are when they frame a trail or walkway.

“In a forest of a hundred thousand trees, no two leaves are alike. And no two journeys along the same path are alike” 

Paolo Coelho

My Private Canopy

My first photo in the post is our sunrise view over the creek behind the new shouse and below is what our fall trees look like in the front (November 2023). I’ve nicknamed this our Grove.

Although it feels like we have many trees, there’s always room for more or in our case a need to replace several trees. We’ve lost trees to the wind and to the local beaver.

It’s been fun to start planting new trees as we get this lot in shape. Earlier in the summer, I picked up a dozen small trees. Last month we finally transplanted the last batch consisting of two Blazing Maples and several Australian Pines.

We kept the amount of new plants to a minimum this year. Maybe in 2025 we’ll be more aggressive with new planting areas and even a small garden. If we can complete much of the shouse building we may actually have time to begin a real landscaping project.

We’ll see if we’re cut out to be tree growers or not in the coming year.

Roadside Shelter

When we hit the road it is always nice to seek out a few trees to snuggle up to.

“Between every two pines there is a doorway to a new world”

John Muir

My favorite stretch of trees are located along the California coast. If you’ve never been to this part of the states, you can check out our set of posts & videos of the area. Definitely a bucket list trip and I’m grateful we were able to work that into our plans a couple of years ago.

About the Photo Challenge

A weekly themed photo challenge hosted by Terri. Check out her Blog and come back to visit for more SundayStills and traveling posts!

More Sunday Still Posts

Thanks for visiting our Retired Life & Travel blog and I hope you enjoyed finding the #SundayStills Challenge. You can join the weekly challenge by visiting our hosts blog Second Wind Leisure. and checking out Terri’s post for this week, Someone Planted a Tree.