Vital . . .

     "I couldn't live where there were no trees -                       something vital in me would starve." 
                                                                                                                                                             - L. M. Montgomery

This is my front yard or back, depending on perspective. I purchased a heavily wooded lot covered with spruce and deciduous trees. Adjacent my property is over a hundred undeveloped acres of borough land - which lends to a glorious feeling that I’m living in a park.
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My home sits up on a knoll and from the other side of the property, I have a peak-a-boo view, through a bower of birch, of a beautiful lake. The road that divides my land from the lake runs through a residential area where, to my chagrin, neighboring autos all too often impede the natural sounds of the surrounding habitat.

I’ve landscaped my plot . . . maintaining care to remove only what’s necessary; primarily dead spruce trees - of which there seemed to me to be a plethora. Aside from two large, dying spruce trees, I’m done clearing my land - at least for the time being.

I love how spruce trees provide my land with natural privacy and that birch trees, from spring to fall, spread a canvas overhead. And when their orange and yellow leaves drop, their stately presence surrounds me on all sides through the dark, cold months of winter storms.

Eagles perch in my trees on a regular basis and an owl flies from tree to tree hunting my property and hoo-hooting from off in the distance. On occasion, a woodpecker pecks at my trees and bird song choruses through the tree tops filling the air with life. And when the wind moves through, it is as if my trees are dancing to its rhythm and clapping their hands from the simple joy of living.