For the Love of Trees
A Tree House
A tree house, a free house, a secret you and me house,
A high up in the leafy branches cozy as can be house.
A street house, a neat house, be sure and wipe your feet house
Is not my kind of house at all ~ let’s go live in a tree house.
Shel Silverstein
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Ireen has been drawn to climbing trees for as long as we can remember. Each and every day, she makes her way up into her favorite guava tree in the backyard. She may not be visible, but we know she’s up there because of the way she chatters. It’s like she is talking to an old friend. When she feels mellow, sad, excited, or uneasy…she climbs. Even after the noon showers and the tree is soaking wet she still asks, “Can I climb the tree?” For the most part she has a pretty good safety record, though she has fallen a number of times. But routinely, she picks herself up after shedding a few tears and again ascends the tree.
Nowadays she’s an expert climber. She swings from branch to branch with ease and dismounts with her famous flip. Yesterday, I found her 20 ft up in a tree at Ciyanjano. Emma Whitfield was also with her and the two were as happy as they could be. I wasn’t upset with her for climbing that high. A few words of caution are in order, but Ireen likes to go that high and seems un-phased by it. The fact that she made it up there by herself proves how daring she has become, not to mention how strong her upper body has become. For the most part, it seems a healthy activity as she exercises her muscles and her imagination.
December 3rd, 2009 at 19:59
Ireen, I too climbed a lot of trees when I was growing up, but I wasn’t as adventuresome as you are. Have fun, but do be careful. I love you.
Grandma
December 4th, 2009 at 04:46
I know this is coming from a skittish North American point of view, but are there ever snakes or other creatures in the trees?
December 4th, 2009 at 09:22
Mark, I suppose it is a possibility although we’ve never seen any snakes in the trees around our homes – just in the rafters
This particular day I would have been surprised to see a snake within 100 yds since there were 15+ children running around creating all sorts of noise!