On Trees

This is my favorite tree. This tree has been with me through thick and thin in marching band season over the past three years.

During the summer, the color guard always wanted the shade from this tree to practice; of course, so did everyone else in the band. Yet somehow, we managed to snag this lovely tree more than any other section.

It's the perfect tree because not only does it provide shade, but its branches are high up enough that we can still do tosses without hindrance. It's a lovely tree and I shall always cherish it.

This assignment particularly reminded me of a book I loved back in middle school called Which Witch? by Eva Ibbotson.

It was a fantastic book about a dark wizard who, upon the realization of a grey hair, decides to marry a dark witch. He holds a contest for the seven witches found in the North of Great Britain. The witch that does the most cruel, awful magic will be his bride.

One of the witches decides on an the old, reliable trick of locking people into trees. She summons a particularly nasty family; a spoiled daughter, a shopaholic mother, and a quiet father. She magics them unconscious, seals them in trees, and takes a bow.

At this point, the other witches demand that she must undo her magic in order to prove her power. She does so, releasing the mother and daughter. The spirits of the trees, the dryads, come out and exclaim how terrible each one was.

When she tries to release the father, she finds she is unable to. The dryad in the tree, a tall oak, comes out and informs the crowd that the father will not be coming out. He likes being inside the tree; it's quiet without his family nagging at him, and he was happy to sit in peace in the tree.

I'm going to go buy that book for my Kindle and read it again.


Edit: I've been holding onto this because I haven't taken a picture of the tree. So belated, but eh.