How lush the Siberian elms, the cottonwoods, and other deciduous trees are in summer. How cool Ruth Street is on a hot day!
And how dreary the same trees can look in January! That's probably the reason that "in the pines" adds tens of thousands of dollars to property prices here in Prescott. The ponderosas are beautiful in winter, especially in the snow. But there's a catch: pines continue to provide shade when you least need it. People who settled this older neighborhood were more practical. Like today's greens, they figured that you want more sunshine in the cold months. Lower heating bills. Or maybe they just liked the kinds of trees they remembered from Ohio and other points east.
One thing I do notice when the leaves are gone -- the extent to which the tree surgeons have been at work on the older trees. In fact, people hereabouts often go to great lengths to save aging shade trees, especially those monster cottonwoods near Granite Creek.
Still, there is a delicate, mournful beauty to bare trees in winter. And the reassurance that they will leaf out once again the coming spring.
How lush the Siberian elms, the cottonwoods, and other deciduous trees are in summer. How cool Ruth Street is on a hot day!
And how dreary the same trees can look in January! That's probably the reason that "in the pines" adds tens of thousands of dollars to property prices here in Prescott. The ponderosas are beautiful in winter, especially in the snow. But there's a catch: pines continue to provide shade when you least need it. People who settled this older neighborhood were more practical. Like today's greens, they figured that you want more sunshine in the cold months. Lower heating bills. Or maybe they just liked the kinds of trees they remembered from Ohio and other points east.
One thing I do notice when the leaves are gone -- the extent to which the tree surgeons have been at work on the older trees. In fact, people hereabouts often go to great lengths to save aging shade trees, especially those monster cottonwoods near Granite Creek.
Still, there is a delicate, mournful beauty to bare trees in winter. And the reassurance that they will leaf out once again the coming spring.
Reading your comment about shade under the pines makes me think of a plaintive old balad my Az. Grandmother used to sing. "In the pines...in the pines, where the sun never shines...
ReplyDeleteLinda
Lots of evergreens here. I like the look of a bare tree in winter. Reaching up with naked branches as if begging for warmth and the return of the leaves.
ReplyDeleteIt occurred to me as I was out walking today that in winter, you can study the structure and the layout of shade trees; they're a lot more complex than our pines, which are pretty straight-forward,
ReplyDelete