The Catbird Seat

I never thought it’d happen to us: we have a “tree hugger” in our family.

Literally.

We routinely go to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens to (a) get out of the house, (b) get some sun and shade, and (c) give our girls a chance to run wide open for as long as their legs will hold them.

The B’ham Botanical Gardens is great, in particular, because they have many woodland trails that really fit the bill for satisfying (c) listed above.

It also has a pretty amazing Japanese Gardens; Paul and I love it there. So peaceful.

Along the stone path toward the back of the Japanese Gardens is a pond that is bordered by a very large and very beautiful weeping cherry tree.

When Paul told Jane the name of the tree, she got suddenly very melancholy.

As we walked away, she ran back to me (trailing behind with Elizabeth) and said, pointing at the tree, “Mommy! That tree is very sad.”

“I know, Jane. It’s weeping, isn’t it?”

(Big nod.) “I think I’ll give it a hug to nake [not a typo] it feel better.”

And that’s exactly what she did. And every time we’ve been since.

Sweet girl.

Filed under: General, Catbird, Local Color, Tidbits, Jane on May 27th, 2007