Joni Mitchell’s lyric rolled through my mind..something about paving paradise with parking lots and creating tree museums….and here I was strolling in Boston’s Arnold Arboretum late afternoon in mid October. Struck by the shape of the trees, I realized how I see trees–shaped by suburban lots and streets. Crammed into the sidelines, pruned for power lines, and by trucks traveling beneath I see lots of trees but rarely in their individual form. The woodlands I wander grow trees in dense populations so unless one happens on a clearing with a lone tree you’re unlikely to see the kinds of shapes that startled my vision that afternoon.
Of course, even in a tree museum nature shapes the trees and staff add their sculpting vision. But the trees are amazing.
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