Your moment of Zen:

[applegrove]

Crown shyness. Pretty Zen, no? Stare. Lose yourself. Come back though.

— Johnny Nice Painter ⬛🖌️ (@johnnynicepainter.bsky.social) 2026-01-23T20:11:53.700Z

[biophile]

1. I'm a tree hugger from the 60's and 70's - love this!

And we definitely need it today

[applegrove]

3. Yes another day, another victim and the continued

cutting of losses for great Americans, of which there is one less today: Alex Pretti. So sorry for his family.

[Easterncedar]

5. And your name too, applegrove, kindred spirits

All tree lovers here

[applegrove]

6. Yes. We had 8 huge maples on our property growing up.

They each got diseased and we had to cut most of them down. My dad had an oak tree sapling planted on our front lawn one day. We came home from school and saw this ten foot high stick in the ground and we thought it was boys from the private school across the road playing a joke on us. It is a mighty oak and is getting big at 60 + years. When my brother died I calculated that he and the tree were roughly the same age so it reminds me of him whenever I drive by. Trees are the best.

[Easterncedar]

7. I have some American chestnut seeds in the fridge

They are from the local arboretum nursery. I won't live to see them grow far, but I hope to see them started. I am happy to try.

[applegrove]

8. Good for you. We don't have chestnut trees in my 'ahem' neck

of the woods.

[Easterncedar]

9. They once were the dominant species in the eastern us

Wiped out by blight

[applegrove]

10. Same thing happened to elms when I was a kid.

[Easterncedar]

11. Yes. I mourned the elms, too. The chestnuts were long gone

Now the ashes and the spruce. We have effed things up something horrible

[applegrove]

12. My cousin took a photo of a spruce bud worm. It is one

ugly bug.

[Easterncedar]

4. With a name like yours, you are clearly kindred

[Easterncedar]

2. Thank you

That's gorgeous

[Intractable]

13. I think I see ... broccoli!

[applegrove]

14. It does kind of look like a micro-picture.

[electric_blue68]

15. How lovely!....

The 2nd northern most westside park in Manhattan is called Ft Tryon Park. It faces NJ Palisades- a massive veritical geological ?basalt rock wall with The Hudson River in-between. Been told geological fans come to view it. Been a part of my life for decades.

It has one of the biggest gardens outside of our Botanical Gardens. It's home to The Cloisters medieval building filled w medieval art.

In between is remnants of Ft Tryon itself.
It has a beautiful grove of Linden trees. I spent many hours there in the Spring, and Summer.

One day I really looked totaly upaward from the bench I was sitting on to the under canopy of the trees. That's when I noticed that "crown shy" phenomenon. I did a small colored pencil drawing of it. Decades back- I don't think I have it. But I remember!

[applegrove]

16. Lucky you. I love canopies. Some day maybe I'll go down to latin America and

get to see the world from on high.

[electric_blue68]

18. Enjoy the trees wherever you are!

[Nittersing]

17. I grew up just west of those Palisades

Used to walk our lab mix, hunny, up there all the time!

[electric_blue68]

19. Very cool! They're quite the sight!

And we have cousins in north NJ. so we we were always crossing the GW Bridge.