A tree in the yard

I spent the afternoon "supervising" (read: surviving) a playdate between my daughter and her two best friends. They spent the afternoon fighting, yelling, screaming, running, playing, giggling, laughing, and generally making mischief. In other words, having the time of their 10 year old lives!

As I tried to keep their merry-making tuned down in my rattled brain, I sought a way to direct my energy and found it in the study of a tree. It loomed over the building in the rear of the playground, stark and staring in it's bare branches. It's doubled trunk had to be over 30 feet around, and it stands an impressive 100 feet or more... it has to have been there for decades. I wondered how many people had sat in exactly this place and stared at that tree. How many parents had wondered at it's presence in their children's lives... how many children had grown up around that tree? It stands in the rear of the school, in the foreground of the playground. I think it's a tulip tree, although I'm not the best at ID'ing a tree without leaves or fruit in evidence.

I spent the two hours of screaming laughter quietly drawing that tree until I realized I'd be unable to capture it's magnificence on my meager sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 inch drawing paper. I'll have to go back again, and try again... probably next weekend.