Good evening everyone,

The following little true story was posted by me, in one of Mary H's threads 'Mighty Oaks', in her Shared ideas equals shared success forum, earlier this year.  I thought it appropriate to include it in our garden here, as Daddy's oak tree is actually in my garden:

At the time that my father was dying, a friend in the village asked me if I wanted a tiny oak tree.

We live in a very small village in France (about 50 people in the village) and this lady lives in a little house which hasn't got a garden.  She has lots of tubs and window boxes and a bird must have dropped an acorn in one of them.

There are no oak trees in or around our village. 

It was not possible for her to let this little oak tree grow where it was.  We have a big domain, so she thought that I would like it.

I thought of Daddy and I planted the little oak tree in our front garden, in his name, overlooking the countryside.  We have wonderful views from that spot and Daddy loved it when he came to visit us.  My daddy lived a lot longer than the experts expected him to and I call the tree my tree of hope and life.

I've placed a garden bench next to it so that people can sit and contemplate.  I picture a bench below it when it has grown.  That will be in many years, of course, but it will be many years of hope and love.  I give the tree a lot of love and it is doing well.

Thank you for sharing the photos and thank you for letting me share my little oak tree story.

(When I get the chance, I'll take a photo and put it here.  In the meantime, here's another oak tree).



Blessings, love & light,

Sarah

Hi Sarah,

What a lovely story. I'm sure your father loved watching it grow.

Every body needs a "tree of hope and life" and I'm glad it helped in proving the "experts" were wrong in their predictions.

Thanks so much for sharing that beautiful story with us.

All the best & Shalom,

Peter

P.S I haven't forgotten that I still owe you some pics of the Bahai Gardens. :)

Hello Peter,

Thank you.

We've planted over one hundred trees here. Unfortunately, they have not all survived, but I hope that one day Daddy's tree of hope and life will be fully grown and will be able to have the bench underneath it.

I look forward to the pics, when you are able.

Blessings,
Sarah

Hi Sarah,

I loved your story, and hope all of your trees survive!!  It was a wonderful stroy.  And, I have brought this little guy to sit in your trees and sing for you!!

Blessings, Judy

Judy,

You brought him over!

Thank you.

I put the little ones on the school bus this morning, and as I turned away from the gate I saw Daddy's tree glowing with the morning sun shining on it.

Oh yes, I thought to myself, I was going to take a photo of you.

Here it is:



As you can see, it is still very small, but it has more than doubled its size when I planted it.

Here's another photo that I took the other evening, of Dodo having a nap on the creeper.



The creeper is full of lovely colours at this time of the year.

Blessings,

Sarah