my favorite pine

My favorite childhood book was Heidi. On my tenth birthday, I was sitting outside on our apartment porch reading it as another gift was given to me: a baby toy poodle which I immediately named “Heidi”. After all, they both had curly black hair!

In the book, Heidi loved the tall fir trees behind Grandfather’s shack that seemed to dance. I “befriended” some tall evergreen trees on the side of my grandmother’s house on the outskirts of Wichita — I often climbed in the branches of one to hide and read.

We have several evergreen trees on our property, my favorite of which is this pine standing at least 55’ tall, behind a shorter cedar tree. Earlier this week, I woke up to a sky full of pink and purple wispy clouds behind the tree, which I tried painting on this journal page —- along with a quote from Heidi. After 55 years, I decided to read the story once more.