Dear Liza,
Bikes, coffee, brunch… these are a few of the things Portlanders are obsessed with. But there is something else, something so ubiquitous (that means it’s everywhere!) are trees. Young, old, and really old, Portland loves its trees.
Our family tends to name new trees that we meet. Bridgett has young fir she calls Oliver, and I have matching Douglas firs I have named Doug and David, after David Douglas, who gave the species its name.
But my favorite tree so far is Willie, a young Dawn Redwood that was planted by the off leash dog area on Laurelhurst Park last spring. It was skinny but leafy. I named it after my Momma and wished it well.
Then came one of the driest summers on record, and we worried. Would Willie survive? Did she lose her leaves because she was deciduous, or because she was dead?
So, when the weather went from cold to warm, I would check on Willie. Was she going to get leaves? Would she live? YES!
The sequence of pictures goes from last June, when she was new, through late summer’s die off and winter’s bare branches to this spring’s lush new growth.
Yay, Willie! Yay, spring!
Love,
Grandma Judy
Dear Liza 