Winter walks

The shortest, coldest days of the year are upon us, but I still do my best to walk in the evenings. It helps to have a dog who lifts my wrist from the laptop with his cold nose at 4 pm sharp to remind me it's time for our daily constitutional. Last night, at a nearby park, just as the sun was setting, I took this picture of the kind, dependable, solid trees above us.

There's just something about trees...

Trees are the earth's endless effort to speak to the listening heaven.
Rabindranath Tagore

In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they're still beautiful.
Alice Walker 

It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men's hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.
Robert Louis Stevenson