I hear the wind among the trees Playing the celestial symphonies; I see the branches downward bent, Like keys of some great instrument. ~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

We are so lucky to live three houses away from a large local park, Oak Hill. Some of the towering walnut trees have to be hundreds of years old. Sadly, age, disease and/or lightning strikes have damaged quite a few of these beautiful landmarks. Over the past few weeks, we have heard the buzz of chainsaws and the distinct sound of the wood chipper as some of these monuments have been taken down and turned into dust.

One of the trees near the playground that we frequent had been cut into large pieces and lay on their sides. I had shown Cole that the middle of the tree was unfortunately hollow which meant it was sick and in danger of falling over if they had not cut it down. His eyes got all big and he goes "mommy, don't touch it, it has germs because it is sick and we don't want to get sick too". He took a wide berth of the fallen giant every time he circled the playground during his race game, giving it the wary eye as if it was going to sneeze or cough, LOL.

I hope the park decides to plant new trees in the place of the ones that had grown there for so long as though we wouldn't see them grow to the same magnificent stature in our lifetime, it would be comforting to know that someday they would look down on generations of children to come as they played in the same park I watch Cole gleefully scamper about now.