I’m remembering a walk in January when a lone tree in a field caught my attention, the shape of the branches against the sky, how stripped back it was without leaves or flowers or fruit of any kind, how during the Winter all the scars from fallen branches and the shaping by the prevailing wind show clearly.
I have enjoyed seeing trees during Winter for a while now, and some have made it into my work, usually hand embroidered. I remember saying during an embroidery workshop I ran, that trees are all different, they all have unique shapes and branch patterns, perhaps showing what has happened to them through their life, and therefore it doesn’t matter if your embroidered tree doesn’t exactly match the pattern or someone else’s tree.
As I finish writing this the buds are opening into leaves, and there is joy in seeing those signs of new growth and Spring coming, but before then there is a beauty in the Winter trees, perhaps not despite the bareness and the scars and the differences, but because of those things.
