Tag: Trees

Two of my favorite places on earth are tied together by a single tree.

The North Shore of Lake Superior lies just south off Canada. And Ireland lies west of the UK. Neither has much in common.

Each year, my wife and I join her family on a getaway to the North Shore. We stay at a small resort a few miles north of Grand Marais and spend our week having campfires on the rocky coast and eating pie. We wander the area, pick agates, skip stones, visit State Parks, talk about fishing (but never do), and relax near the perfect simplicity of the ancient and cold Lake Superior. Last year, our family group walked all over the area near the resort. Down and around the coast, I saw a tree that I always love to see—the Mountain Ash. It’s almost a large shrub or a bush, but it does grow tall. The branches are filled with flat rows or leaves and bundles of reddish-orange berries. I find the Mountain Ash quite beautiful. The red offsets the green leaves, making the tree stand out near any evergreen. Before we left, I looked around and dug up a spindly little sapling to bring home and stuff into the ground. Despite my best efforts, it appeared that the tiny tree would not make it.

A month after our week on the North Shore, my wife and I walked along the eastern coast of Ireland, in the fishing village of Howth. I love Ireland so very much. The reason the world over speaks of Ireland as the Emerald Isle is because it’s true. Ireland is never really beset with a hard winter. So, the island grows vibrantly green. Trees and vines and bushes and ivies and all sorts of plants grow there. Even in the rockiest portions of the island, tufts of green heather can be found here and there. But the biggest surprise to me was finding the Mountain Ash growing wildly in that little coastal town.

Last week, as I walked around the yard, back at home, I found the place where I planted the spindly Mountain Ash. I kneeled down and saw that it has begun budding. It makes me very happy to know that, one day, our yard will have a tree that reminds me of both the North Shore and the Emerald Isle.

anthony forrest