When we moved to this house in California in 1994, we saw in the back yard not only a pool, but several beautiful BIG trees that looked as if they would love to have a nice tree house built in their sturdy limbs.
After a couple of years David, 14 y/o in the photo above, and Dad planned and built the double decker edifice that would be the fort, hideout, clubhouse, jump off (to the trampoline) place, and whatever the imaginations of my clever little offspring
could muster up.
Jonathan in the meantime built a new fence on the same side of the yard, while the little girls helped where they could and played as the work progressed.
This was a sturdy tree house, and after a couple of years, a bottom deck was added so that it was easier to climb up into the house. Now it was a three story playhouse. Here you see the complete structure that would have lasted for 20 more years, except... check out the trees that surround the house. Yes, they died. Got eaten by red beetles like many Monterey Pines do on the "peninsula". So in 2005 we took down the trees and of course the well made tree house that they were supposed to protect and outlive.
Before....
and After.
The yard looks looked empty without them, but now after a few years, we seem to be used to the blankness, and don't even notice the hole that is left by their demise. We've even put a little fig tree, garden, and trampoline (which is a subject I'll tackle later and what led me onto this treehouse topic in the first place). We do still notice the hole that is left in our hearts for those times missed in the treehouse, the cute little children that once graced the branches of the pines, the grandchildren who will never have the joy of playing in them and innocent days that we'll never have again.
Such great memories.
I love this post, but oh, that is a sad story! I'm enamored of my trees, and I have a pine that I worry about all the time. (A couple have died from the same pest a couple of streets over.) Do you know if there's any spray that protects them? I'm guessing not, or the city would be using it, since we've lost so many recently.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you had pictures of the tree house that you could keep. And I'm also glad that, as with all things, you have adjusted now to the new space created by the trees' absence.
That's the way it goes, eh? And at least you've got the memories!
=)
aww little david :)
ReplyDelete