A very special tree that I basically grew up with reached its final time upon this earth after getting that disease that is attacking the palm trees on the island. It was a beautiful palm tree that lay in the middle of the drive way. As you came down the little dirt road with trees left and right there it stood in the middle in front of the house. I watched it grow from a tiny baby to a huge glorious palm tree.
I am going to write a children’s story about it. I felt to post something in honor of it we will just called it she for now as it seems very impersonal to me to call it “it.” As I was searching through photos when I was a child to find photos of her I found photos of the property and my home in which I grew up in, bringing up all sorts of beautiful feelings and melancholy.
The land began as so barren, and open all the trees tiny babies whom by the time of my adult hood had grown into massive trees transforming it into a jungle. What a gift it was to be raised among so many amazing trees. We grew together, they were my playmates, my friends I was always out among them, playing beneath them, beside them, or climbing them. Truly such a gift and honor to have been able to experience that.
There were no neighbors, only the trees, sand dunes, plants, flowers, ocean, cats, dogs, birds, lizards, rabbits, and the various insects. My playground. It was so expansive and free. A few steps away from home was the beach basically our own private beach. The waves were my lullaby as I drifted off to sleep every night.
Even in adulthood this was my home, enjoying its wildness, lying at night in the sand dunes gazing at the stars. My time was always spent among the garden and our jungle, enjoying each moment and the beauty that surrounded me.
I do not have too many photos to show I have more when I was a young child. I mean have plenty somewhere but I have so many photos and albums that I have no clue where to look for them. I do have a video though of the property from a couple of years ago which i share here.
The palm tree I cannot find one of her only when she was a baby..in the video you can kind of see her.
Here is me right before the trees were planted.
There she is as a baby there in the middle of the driveway surrounded by the rocks. and all the tress as little ones which you will see through the photos who they grew and evolved.
Here they are slightly bigger.
Our home in its infancy stages.
The trees getting bigger…
My brother’s first day of school.
The house then….
Enjoying the swing……
Enjoying the veranda…
On the way to the beach…
Apparently my favorite look at the time…
Sleeping with the dogs…a very common occurrence…
My little brother playing with the hose…
My brother’s first attempt on a bicycle…you can see how the trees have grown at this point…this is our road coming down to the house.
Every two years this would happen in our fields and surrounding fields…they would be completely filled with poppies..they come every year in the spring but every few years they do this. this is our one side of the field.
The path going down the beach…
The sand dunes surrounding the one side of property. A place I have spent countless nights gazing at the stars..
Our tractor and volley ball net…
Part of the garden…
Me playing in the garden…
And here is a video from a few years ago so you can see what it is like more accurately. The video quality is not very good its from my camera and taken on a very windy winter day where everything was barren so it does not capture the beauty at all, or color, but you get to see the wildness I was raised in 🙂
It starts with our road going down to the house..notice the difference from when they were babies to later…they actually grew pretty fast all the trees on our property. They weren’t small for very long.
It doesn’t cover the whole property but most parts of it.
You can see the palm tree when coming down the road more its leaves unfortunately..and then at the end you can see it in the far distance, a Cyprus tree blocks it a bit.
Something that just came to me now! I have been writing children stories of different trees I come across. I will create a series of stories from the trees on the property. 🙂 🙂 🙂