WINTER'S SONG

It was an overcast day and quite dreary, I should say.
I alighted from the car thinking I wouldn't be able to snag even just one worthwhile photo of anything. It must be the season, the snowless Christmas day, the hostile weather, the biting cold that has been keeping my spirits in the dumps for quite a while. But the reason for this particular trip was to see Ansel Adams' work, and so I pressed on, refusing to be daunted, making my way through the winter wind, camera in hand but not really knowing what I'd use it for at this time.
All it took was one hour...or it could have been more, I couldn't tell. I got so absorbed in the world created by Adams, captivated by his images.
As I exited the museum doors, it was still an overcast day, and quite charming, I should say.
Dreary? No. Ansel Adams had taught me otherwise.

Below are photos from Lakewood and Half Day Forest Preserves

In the springtime, you bloom with fragrance,

In the summer, your leafy arms give shade to all.

In autumn, you display your colors in all its splendor,

In winter, you bare your beautiful soul.

@LAKEWOOD

Trees are much like human beings and enjoy each other's company.  Only a few love to be alone.  ~Jens Jensen, Siftings, 1939

The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber.  The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.  

~Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Wisdom of the Sands, translated from French by Stuart Gilbert

Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.  

~Rabindranath Tagore, Fireflies, 1928

@HALF DAY

There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it.  

~Minnie Aumonier

Alone with myself

The trees bend to caress me

The shade hugs my heart.

~Candy Polgar

I hear the wind among the trees
Playing the celestial symphonies;
I see the branches downward bent,
Like keys of some great instrument.
~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.  

~Robert Louis Stevenson

If you would know strength and patience, welcome the company of trees.  

~Hal Borland

Long, sparkling aisles of steel-stemmed trees

Bending to counterfeit a breeze.~James R. Russell

A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship.  But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease.  Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves.  No wonder the hills and groves were God's first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself.  ~John Muir