Old Oak

My parents live in a beautiful neighborhood in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina, where the developers of the 1980s took extra care to keep as many of the old oak trees as possible when designing the streets and lots. It’s a visual delight to walk the dogs at dusk, when the setting sun lights up these gorgeous trees with golden light, creating glowing Spanish moss set against the rough knots and elegant curves of the trees.

This is one of my favorite trees of the neighborhood, which grows out of a wide median in the middle of a main road. When you walk or drive underneath of it, you feel as if you’re enveloped in a big tree hug. There’s also a similar tree that grows in the middle of a nearby yard, and the architect designed  the house to wrap around the tree to feature it as a focal point. I’m not sure who chose to keep these trees as such an integral part of this community, but it’s certainly a decision I appreciate each time I visit.