An Oak Tree

I love this oak tree at the top of our garden. We have lots of oaks around us but this one standing silhouetted against the blue sky is definitely the one I like best. It has the vestiges of a tree fort in it, put there by Peter and his friend Gavin a few years back.  In its branches, there is a 'bat house' and a couple of birdhouses...It appears that the bats and the birds, like Peter and Gavin have moved on, but the tree remains to give shade to the arbor and the deer who often graze beneath it, and pleasure to me.

A member of our Blipfoto community, Gillipaw, passed away very suddenly last week. It is difficult to find any words, despite the fact that I find myself thinking of her. I feel that we can't help but consider our own mortality when someone like her is taken with no warning, leaving a grieving family and an unfinished legacy.  She was a private person, but clearly loved her family, her city of Glasgow and her faith. Somehow this tree says more about her strength than I could. May she rest in peace and may her family find some comfort in the shelter of their memories of her. 

We are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us.
-Neil deGrasse Tyson