A Tree Party (Part One)

I love trees (big surprise!), so in honor of Arbor Day on Friday, I wanted to share some of my favorite tree pictures, quotes and links in a post. But working on it made me realize my love of trees has resulted in a collection of favorite tree pictures, quotes and links that's just too big for one post! So... what the hemlock, I'll just make it a tree-part post. ;-) Here, then, is part one of my three-part Arbor Day salute to trees in words and pictures. And though you've probably already guessed it...

(And bless their hearts, they hug me back!)

~~~~~

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
The next best time is now.

~Chinese proverb~

Kentucky Dogwoods in bloom

~photographer unknown~

Tree at my window, window tree,

My sash is lowered when night comes on;

But let there never be curtain drawn

Between you and me.

~Robert Frost~

A Western Tanager in the Ash tree outside my window!
I planted this tree when it was an 18" stick,
and now it's taller than our house!

~Photo by Laloofah~

A society grows great when old men plant trees

whose shade they know they shall never sit in.

~Greek Proverb~

Live Oaks, Oak Alley Plantation, Vacherie, Louisiana
~photographer unknown~

I never before knew the full value of trees...

under them I breakfast, dine, write, read,

and receive my company.

~Thomas Jefferson, 1793~

Gnarled tree root (a perfect spot to sit & rest on the trail)
Chautauqua State Park, Boulder, CO
~Photo by Laloofah, July 2009~

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces,

I would still plant my apple tree.

~Martin Luther~

Apple Orchards in Spring, Trees in Bloom
~Photo by Chris Sharp~

He that plants trees loves others besides himself.

~Thomas Fuller~

Mango grove
near Nosara, Guanacaste, Costa Rica
~Photo by Laloofah, April 2004~

When the trees sing,
It doesn't really matter
If you know the song,
Or if you know the words,
Or even if you know the tune.
What really matters is knowing

That the trees are singing at all.

~Mattie Stepanek~

Red maple in Autumn

near Beckley, West Virginia

~photographer unknown~

The cultivation of trees is the cultivation of the good,

the beautiful, and the ennobling in man,

and for one, I wish to see it become universal.

~Julius Sterling Morton, founder of Arbor Day~

Palm trees at sunset

Coronado, CA
~Photo by Laloofah, March 2003~

Give me a land of boughs in leaf,

A land of trees that stand;

Where trees are fallen there is grief;

I love no leafless land.

~A.E. Housman~

Monteverde Cloudforest, Costa Rica
~Photo by Laloofah, April 2004~

Until you dig a hole, you plant a tree,

you water it and make it survive, you haven't done a thing.

You are just talking.

~Wangari Muta Maathai, activist and Nobel laureate

Wangari Maathai at a tree-planting ceremony in Japan
~AP photo~
(I've no idea who her jolly green friends are!) :-)

For more beautiful tree photos, click here. Most of the pictures that are not my own I found there. Unfortunately, no attributions are given, and despite multiple web searches, I could not find who the photographers were. If you know who took any of these unattributed photos, please let me know!

Stay tuned for A Tree Party, Part Two tomorrow! :-)