I would like to be an Eastern White Pine. I love this majestic and beautiful tree which is the provincial tree of Ontario. For me the very sight of one elicits a sigh contentedness. Add a screeching Blue Jay into that scene and I am in nothing short of complete rapture. This tree in a setting on a lake stirs many wonderful memories of my childhood in Muskoka. I love the smell of the needles when they carpet the ground in the fall, the beauty of the rain captured on the needles, and the windblown appearance of a mature pine. I have a fondness for all trees but this tree holds a special place in my heart and soul.
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| Raindrops on pine needles |
I know I am not the only one to feel this way. The White Pine was the subject of many works of art by The Group of Seven.
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| A.J. Casson - The White Pine |
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| Franklin Carmichael - Island Georgian Bay |
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| Fred Varley - Stormy Weather Georgian Bay |
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| Tom Thompson - Pine Trees at Sunset |
Perhaps I am already a bit like the pine tree. I seem to thrive more in the sun, I am happy by a rocky shore, I am soft but can be prickly if you rub me the wrong way (ha ha) and lastly, I have endured my own weevil which forever changed me and forced me to branch out in different directions but I am still strong and still growing.
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| Damage done to a pine tree by the Weevil |
It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit. ~Robert Louis Stevenson
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