Village Condominium Association

The Village's Winter Trees
by J. F. Weiler

Winter reveals the tree skeletons, showing all their limbs and twig structure that the leaves hide. The Village Zelkova trees have a distinctive profile that always reminds me of an old-time shaving brush. There is a long bare trunk followed by many, many branches jutting out from the same trunk height. The Zelkova serrata tree, indigenous to Japan, was imported to America in 1862. The fall leaves range in color from yellow to orange to a rusty red.

Thoreau's Path on Brister's Hill

Brister's Hill provides a lovely one-mile walk in Thoreau Woods, about one-half mile from Walden Pond. The path has thin granite slabs with engraved quotes from Henry David Thoreau. Brister's Hill is also a really sophisticated example of landscape architecture integrating history and a pleasant walk.

The Hill illustrates the meaning of Thoreau's essay, "The Succession of Forest Trees." In the 1960s it was a gravel pit. Don Henley saved the site from commercial development in 2006. Now you can see the Pitch Pines and Birch trees that Thoreau described in his essay, turning the sandy gavel into a forest again.

At the top of the Hill there is a circle of granite blocks, a Reflection Circle , a place to pause and reflect. The stone blocks have engraved quotes from various nature writers, including Emily Dickenson, John Muir, Rachel Carson and Chief Standing Bear, who wrote:

“The old Lakota was wise. He knew that man's heart, away from nature, becomes hard; he knew that lack of respect for growing, living things soon led to lack of respect for humans too.”

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Written for the Feb. 2012 Village Newsletter.