I just finished reading the book "A Wood of One's Own" by Ruth Pavy.  I could relate to her dream of owning a small patch of woods to putter and plant.  There is a suggestion of permanence and history when planting and caring for trees.  It's a commitment of settling down roots and staying a while.  The flower beds can take a month or a year to produce the desired outcome but trees take patience, dedication, and slowness of time to achieve the desired effect and then maintenance of more than just pulling weeds. There are days that I have wished for more than the small plot of land of our backyard.  Two maybe four acres would be nice I dream. However as I look at what we've done since the beginning, I wonder if I really could leave this less 1/4 acre plot.  When we moved here 22 years ago, our back yard was an expanse of grass.  A tree in the middle that I called my first friend tree because it bloomed and provided a ray of sunshine in the gloomy friendless days of our Pacific Northwest Spring.  We had attempted to move it but it never really did take to the new spot and since then we've planted other trees, learning along the way about pruning and caring for them.  The three small cherry trees have dwarfed everything in the yard and can support the weight of cherry pickers willing the climb higher than our second story.  We added a plum tree that produces so many plums that I've made Asian plum sauce, plum and lemon jam and roasted plum sorbet.  The plum sorbet has been my favorite.  Our current dog will pick a plum and carry it around with no intention of eating them unless it's the pit. The espalier pear tree in the back  usually makes just enough pears for a tarte or two but little more than that.  We should have planted it in a different spot.  Yet I love espalier trees.  They look so classy and beautiful allowing one to approach just one side of the tree.  The apple tree leans so much that the branches are almost parallel to the ground instead of growing perpendicular yet it feels almost nostalgic that way as if the tree has been around for 50 years instead of 10.  Our last addition to our "orchard" is our quince, which I had to beg and beg for it.  Three years later and we had our first round of quince.  I made maybe three jars of jelly and it was liquid gold.  I savored each and every jar.  The next year, there were a few more and I scoured the area for another quince grower to add more quince to my crop.  I may need to this year as well.  Someday though, we may have enough quince of our own.  My test of patience and waiting.  None of our trees are in what I would call a row but spread out around the perimeter of the yard allowing the center to be open for lawn games.  I have added boxwood wherever I can because they stay green all year and can be shaped anyway I would like.  John is rather accommodating with that except for pruning them into spiral shapes. There he puts his foot down. We've put up patio lights that go from house to our paper bark maple that is high enough now to create the perfect shade for our patio for dinners.  Again, it took 10 years or more of waiting for that to come to be.  The clematis along with the wisteria cover a bit of the fence with green and provide a place for birds to rest before nibbling on the blueberries.  There was some planning but mostly I'd like to plant this, where do I put it?  I had an overall garden plan drawn up and though I keep it around, we really haven't followed it at all.  The evergreen trees of our neighbors have grown so tall that the "garden" spot is now in total shade for most of the day, receiving sun during the mid day hours.  However a garden can be moved and relocated with some planning or for us, more like a whim.  Our trees, our neighbor's trees rest in place and create that permanence and stability that I now know I really do need.