Oak Trees

"Oh oak tree, how they have pruned you.  Now you stand odd and strangely shaped!  You were hacked a hundred times until you had nothing left but spite and will!

I am like you, so many insults and humiliations could not shatter my link with life.  and every day I raise my head beyond countless insults towards new light.  What in me was once gentle, sweet and tender this world has ridiculed to death.  But my true self cannot be murdered.  I am at peace and reconciled.  I grow new leaves with patience from branches hacked a hundred times.  In spite of all the pain and sorrow I am still in love with his mad, mad world."

-Hermann Hesse

Trees

At last the trees are budding and blooming here.  There are dandelions everywhere.  Soft green, pale pink and creamy yellow hues whisper spring melodies.  Some of the trees still in their elegant wintry beauty stretch out their branches toward the sky dancing in ecstasy.

For the next while, I will focus on drawing trees; certainly my favourite subject.  For my studies, I will use books of botany as reference from the library.  Also on a warm day, I may take my camera to take pictures of the trees in my neighbourhood to use as reference for my sketches.
It would be great to be able to identify various trees, as well as hopefully learn to better draw them based on their distinguishing characteristics.

my sister's garden in California

"The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way.  Some see nature all ridicule and deformity... and some scarce see nature at all.  But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself."
-William Blake

Sketches Continued...

 "Birdsong brings relief to my longing.  I am just as ecstatic as they are, but with nothing to say."
-Rumi