The Weeping Willow

I absolutely love these trees, they bring back warm fuzzy memories of childhood.
My Primary school had one at the bottom of the playing field. It was by far the biggest Willow tree I have ever seen,it's long branches drooped so far and were so thick the grass had died underneath it and a big well had developed all the way around.
On the really hot days it would turn into a classroom, our teachers would take turns in taking their classes down under the tree for reading and creative writing. I remember those classes more than any other.
During playtime it would be turned into a hospital, a house, a zoo or a speedway.
When I got older and was dealing with the tumultuous teen years, as a refuge on days when things were just too much to handle I would walk up the road to the school and go sit under the Willow, write in my journal or just sit and be alone with my thoughts. The calm would wash over me as I sat beneath those boughs and I would go home with a restored spirit.

My very first best friend had a Weeping Willow in her backyard, her Dad hung a rope ladder from it and we would climb up into the boughs and hide away from her annoying little sister, quite often we would scurry up the rungs of the ladder and then pull it up there with us so there was no way she would interrupt our secret meetings.God those days were so much fun.

As an adult I had always wanted a house with a Weeping Willow tree and after 16 years in the U.S.A that dream finally became a reality and we have a pretty mature one in our back garden, I love it. On days like today when it is a little too warm to sit out in the sun I take my chair, my cup of tea and a book and go sit under it, often Reagan will come with me and that is where we have our quiet time.
Often the kids and their friends will have picnics underneath it, sometimes they'll pitch a tent underneath it and turn it into a clubhouse and sometimes they'll just lay underneath it, but already I see it becoming one of their favorite places to hang out just as the one at my school was mine.
I think it's time to hang a rope ladder from ours and maybe Ben and his friends can retreat up there when his annoying little sister wants to be with them all the time, just so long as he pulls it up there with him ;-)