White Oak Tree

I took this photograph through double pane glass in my office. There is the oak tree that was a foot tall sapling when I planted it. A friend of mine harvested the sapling from under the original tree at our old country school house. Kids, for many generations had sat under its shade and ate their lunches from lunch buckets and paper sacks while watching older kids playing a game of softball on the grass in front of us. I asked if the tree was still there and he said it was and that it had a lot of saplings growing under it. I asked him to bring me one and he did. This is it now. It must be 30 or 40 feet tall and produces nuts each year. The squirrels love it and we do too, mostly for the shade because the squirrels get most of the nuts before they are even mature on the tree.

Photographed through double pane glass in my office with the X100S Fujifilm camera.

The White Oak Tree in winter

The White Oak Tree

The White Oak Nuts

The squirrels plant the nuts and new trees sprout

One of the things that I have been doing since we moved here in 1962 is to try and plant things that look pretty to us and at the same time provide something of value to local wildlife. And we have a bird feeder and a suet cake hanging from the tree all year long and keep it filled and the area clean. The animals respond by hanging around and that much cannot be said for any neighbor around us with turf grass and nothing more. Animals move away from their yards to places where everything from fresh water to shelter and food is provided.