By H.C. Bunner
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants a friend of sun and sky;
He plants the flag of breezes free;
The shaft of beauty, towering high;
He plants a home to heaven anigh;
For song and mother-croon of bird
In hushed and happy twilight heard—
The treble of heaven's harmony—
These things he plants who plants a tree.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants cool shade and tender rain,
And seed and bud of days to be,
And years that fade and flush again;
He plants the glory of the plain;
He plants the forest's heritage;
The harvest of a coming age;
The joy that unborn eyes shall see—
These things he plants who plants a tree.
What does he plant who plants a tree?
He plants, in sap and leaf and wood,
In love of home and loyalty
And far-cast thought of civic good—
His blessings on the neighborhood,
Who in the hollow of His hand
Holds all the growth of all our land—
A nation's growth from sea to sea
Stirs in his heart who plants a tree.
--------
I spent most of Monday schlepping around. It's tax free shopping week for clothes in Maryland, so this is the week I want to do all the kids' back-to-school shopping. We started at Sports Authority because Adam desperately needed new running shoes, but they didn't have any in his wide-foot size. Then we went to Target for pants for Daniel, running clothes for Adam, and various household/dorm items, put those in the van and walked to Dick's, which did have running shoes in the right size but also had the worst customer service anywhere. The Nationals are giving away four tickets to anyone who spends more than $100 total in Target, Kohl's, Sears, Macy's, and other local stores this week, so let's just say that making that total will not be a problem.
Adam had his first evening driver's ed class, so we went to meet Paul, dropped off Adam, and went to Petco and Trader Joe's for food for cats and us respectively. I took a walk when we got home, since the weather continues unseasonably cool for August -- by which I mean 90, which is a huge improvement on 100 -- and the deer and bunnies were out. We had dinner, retrieved Adam, and watched tonight's Warehouse 13, which continues to be awesome both in characterization and pop culture references, then last night's Political Animals, which is growing less believable but has lots of awesome women so who cares. Some photos from Pea Island Wildlife Refuge in the Outer Banks, including egrets, turtles, plovers, and the boiler of the steamer Oriental which sunk in the Graveyard of the Atlantic during the Civil War:
While I lived in NC for 4 years, we never made it to the Outer banks. Quite lovely photos.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it amazing how $100 disappears so quickly when you are shopping for kids. No tax week is great.
I have been to both ends of NC -- the mountains and the ocean -- it's the middle I haven't seen much of, except for the Duke campus while we were looking at colleges. It's a beautiful state!
ReplyDeleteWe actually spent closer to $200 in Target yesterday, heh.