a celebration of trees

"I wanted to see the self, so I looked at the mulberry." Marvin Bell, "The Self and the Mulberry"

Pablo, a frequent commentator on this blog, is hosting the second-ever Festival of the Trees at the Roundrock Journal and invites us all to come over and explore links, admire photos, and enjoy quotations. He's posted a link to my post about the mesquite, and links to other wonderful posts that will make us all aware of the unending generosity of trees. And if you're a tree-lover and tree-poster, you might want to contribute to the third Festival, which begins September 1 and will be hosted by Bev at Burning Silo.

And here's a tree--a small one--to celebrate. This Texas native is the rough-leaf dogwood (Cornus drummondii) that grows so gracefully along our creek, somehow managing to look cool and crisp even in the wilting August heat. White blossoms in spring produce these white berries in late July and early August. They'll all be gone in a few weeks, eaten eagerly by mockingbirds, cardinals, jays, titmice, woodpeckers, even the crows. A bountiful feast that will surely yield--as nature has so happily arranged it--more forests of rough-leaf dogwoods in years to come.