White Pine both young and old

walking in the woods
looking for the seedlings
planted this spring
a gang of deer
took off
with a few flashes
of white
I Listen to
Mother Nature
for advise on
forest husbandry
and find the
White Pine youngsters
thriving in their new
neighbourhood





























This White Pine‎ from which this board

was cut germinated about 400 years ago.
I salvaged it when I was 25 for
cupboards in the house that I was building.
It was from the attic floor of a 150 year-old stone

Georgian farm house‎ near Streetsville
where I grew up.
The old White Pine may have grown up
in the woods where I have lived for
35 years. The original forest here included 

White Oak and White Pine 

but the regrowth has become predominantly Maple.
This old Pine and it's neighbour's were
also cut into timbers for the farm's
barns, some of which are looking on from
the woodshed and tractor Taj.
 I touch the‎ Pine every day in
the kitchen‎ cupboards ‎. 
‎The 24x21 in. piece that i'm painting
and carving was part of one end
of the original kitchen cabinets which
have subsequently been rebuilt
with Butternut, Beech and Ash
from the property‎.
It's a perfect late summer day
for hanging out with the forest creatures 

while bring in the  firewood

but a valve stem let go 

on one of the

1939 tractors so

one form of bliss

is exchanged 

for another