Trees Frame the View

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

I am home. Clothing unpacked, washed and put away. The UPS truck will shortly be delivering a couple boxes of books, brochures, gardening products and plants. There are people to thank. Efforts to acknowledge. Notes to transcribe.

It will take about a week to debrief. Then the lessons from last week's symposium will have rooted. The ideas brought home were not just from well-crafted seminars.

The lessons were also in the landscape. The climate of Portland is very different from my southern California. In Portland, the clouds naturally provide the effect that we must use shade cloth for: coolness. Still there were many lessons that can be translated.

The first of which is trees frame the view. Of what we see. Of how we feel.