THE BEST GIFT...

"Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world..." 

                                                                                                     -John Muir

That gorgeous pine tree, from the corner property,was taken down last week. It's roots were travelling too close to the house foundations. And the tree leaned. A lot. Imagine it plopping down across the street, during a winter storm. Ouch.

"Be like a tree. The tree gives shade even to him who cuts off its boughs..."-Sri Chaitayna

So the tree came down...

                 And DOWN...

On one of the days when smoke was drifting in, over Mt. Washington Range. I'd never seen the full southern portion of the range, because of the tree.

And lo, and behold, there was SKY....so big, so vast, so wonderful. For the first time in the twenty years I've lived here (wowzers). I could see the entire range. And the sky...that incredible sky.

"Even after all this time...

...the Sun never says to the earth: 

 "You owe me"

Look what happens with a love like that...

It lights up the whole sky." -Hafiz a

The view from my house on the hill. Best view in Campbell River, B.C., I would hazard a guess.

That beautiful old tree.The entire neighbourhood stood and watched it being cut down. It's time had come. Look what it gave in return. The best gift in the world. 

The expanse of the sky, the full range from South to North, the sun, the moon, the stars at night, the crickets in summer, and snow in winter.

"Trees are poems the earth writes upon the sky..." -Khalil Gibran

Photographs 2026