The Beauty of Trees In Winter

Winter Sunrise ©Susan Sherwood 2016

I have always loved bare winter trees, especially when silhouetted against a pastel sky at sunrise or sunset, or snow-covered on a clear blue morning after a storm. The following passages and images celebrate the unique strength and beauty of trees in the winter.

From Sour Grapes: A Book of Poems (1921)

Sky Reflections ©Susan Sherwood 2016

To the Real Lover of Trees

To the real lover of trees they are all equally beautiful and interesting at all seasons of the year; and no one knows trees well who cannot distinguish the different species as easily and surely in winter as in spring or summer. Almost every tree has some special and peculiar beauty which is seen to the best advantage in winter. The fine spray of the beech is seen only at this season of the year, and there are few more beautiful objects in nature than the delicate branches of our New England beech trees seen against the clear blue sky of a brilliant winter day. The sturdiness of the oak is best realized in winter, for at other seasons its massive limbs are often hidden under their covering of leaves...The bark of most trees appears more beautiful in winter than at other seasons of the year because the eye, undisturbed by the contemplation of the foliage, can then most easily take in all the details of its varied texture and wonderful colors....

 --From the Introduction to Studies of Trees In Winter (1905)

Book by Annie Oakes Huntington, Introduction by C. S. Sargent

Tree Trunks and Sky ©Susan Sherwood 2016

Winter Trees  ©Susan Sherwood 2016