Trees

It was when I returned to college that I began to research my Lithuanian heritage in much more detail. Here I found trees played in important role to Lithuanian culture and folklore. In Lithuanian culture, every tree and flower exudes life energy. The miraculous trees in Lithuania folklore are the oak (azhuolas), linden (liepa), birch (beržas), ash (uosio), and spruce (eglė). In the Palouse region where I live, I have been fascinated by the western red cedar and ponderosa pine, and the willow, just to name few. The galleries are photographs of trees where I live on the Palouse and those I’ve come across in my travels.

Updated 05/2026

Click on any image to view the slideshow:

Black and White photograph of a dying tree in winter. Behind it the sun veiled in a bank of fog rolling across the Palouse hills
Color photograph of a tree in winter, in the Columbia Gorge in the town of Cascade Locks.
Color photograph of a flowering plum tree in front of a round building in Moscow Idaho.
Black and White photograph of a the top of a tree below puffy clouds in the spring in Pullman Washington
Color photograph of rows of maple trees after the've lost there autumn leaves.
Black and White tree in winter on the Palouse behind a barbed wire fence.
Color photograph of a tree on a strip of land surrounded by water standing above it reflection.
Color photography of a row of trees in the morning sun, their upper branches covered by moss
Black and white photograph of a tree growing out and above rocks.
Color photographs of a winter tree red in the morning sun under a clear blue sky.
Black and white photograph of a small tree that looks old growing out of rock on top of a hill.
Color photograph of pine trees a the top of Kamiak Butte on a cold covered in frost in the light of the low winter sun.
Black and White of a tree with light green leaves (the color of Sage).
Color photograph of a lone tree leafless with a few trunks cut off, on the side of the road. Bar Road, on the Palouse, WA.
Black and white photograph of blooming trees in the University of Idaho Arboretum
Color photograph of a tall old tree on a street corner in Walla Walla Washington near the Whitman college campus.

Melissa and I share our backyard with a beautiful western red cedar that has shown its steady presence through what a given day may bring. On warm summer days I’ve relaxed in the gift of its shadows, listening to the birdsong coming from its depths. I have sat up at night listening to the winds blow its branches and have felt its dripping of rain and melting of snow. All the while it remains steady and rooted. I am grateful for its teaching and for those I’ve walked by and shared here, and for those not shared here.

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