After twenty-plus years of blogging on this website, I tend to re-tread the same familiar paths, particularly when it comes to seasonal blooms. The parade of peonies happens at the same time every year, the American lilacs put on their show right before the Korean lilacs – and they go up and out here before they go up and out in Maine – and right now the Chinese dogwoods are finishing their typically-extensive “blooming” period (use of quotes for the fact that the prominent white ‘blossoms’ covering the trees now are not actual flowers, but bracts – modified leaves that give the appearance of a bloom).
When you’ve posted twenty years of dogwood trees, there’s not much more to see, other than attempting to see things from a different vantage point, like from the inside of the tree looking out.
The world is framed by foliage and ‘flowers’ when you place yourself within a tree. The best trees are those that become cozy lookouts for birds and bees and butterflies and dragonflies, providing protection when there is wind or rain or hawks about. From within the interior, the world almost looks like a manageable place.
Only when you have a safe haven like this does such a sentiment come into play – without it, you might wonder if there’s anything manageable about the world at all.
