I love The Cloud Report most when it’s interactive.
In March, I crowdsourced photos of the clouds from my neighbors:
In February, I attempted to identify the trees at the intersection based on the twigs. At the bottom of the spread, I asked for feedback and corrections. A handful of people reached out to graciously correct [all of] my IDs.
Last month’s issue of The Cloud Report was tree-themed, so I revisited February’s incorrect IDs, using the expertise subscribers shared to identify the trees based on their leaves:
In this same issue, I shared a few recommendations for “trees in media,” linking to a couple podcasts and a video that I loved. I asked people to share their own favorite tree media back.
I’ve heard from dozens of people over the past few weeks. One person shared photos from a family vacation: three people standing in front of one of the two remaining old oak trees in the Joshua Tree desert in California. Another person wrote about being enamored with the huge Norway Maple in their Brooklyn backyard, despite knowing that Norway Maples are kinda junky.
And there were so, so many amazing recommendations. I’m sharing them with you here, starting with three of my favorites from the bunch:
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A Short Documentary About a Giant Pencil — Subscriber Daniel Straub’s short documentary about a Minneapolis chainsaw sculptor and a 20-ft pencil carved from a fallen oak. Daniel shared the private screener link so I got to watch the whole thing, which made me feel special… if an upcoming screening happens to be near you, don’t miss it. If you’re local, you can catch it at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival on 8/28.
“Hurricane” by Mary Oliver — a reader shared that they returned to this poem often after the 2024 election, finding the resilience of trees a “rallying cry to persist”
This Ram Dass quote: “When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.
The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’ That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.”
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Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard (recommended by 3 people!)
When the Forest Breathes by Suzanne Simard
Wishtree by Katherine Applegate
The Wild Trees by Richard Preston
The Overstory by Richard Powers
In Trees by Robert Moor (author of On Trails)
The Beginner’s Guide to Recognizing Trees of the Northeast by Mark Mikolas
The Home Place by J. Drew Lanham
How Flowers Made Our World by David George Haskell
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
A Field Guide to North American Trees, a poetry chapbook by Alabama poet Garrett Ashley
“Instructions on Not Giving Up” by Ada Limón
“The Tulip Tree” by William Stafford (from The Rescued Year)
“When I Am Among the Trees”, read aloud by Mary Oliver (Instagram reel)
“The Loveliest of Trees” by A.E. Housman
Silent Friend — a film featuring a gingko tree
“Relaxing Old Footage with Joe Pera” — a 5-hour “TreeTV” video of continuous tree footage with music by Ryan Dann
“Forests on Forests” (Radiolab) — a follow-up to “From Tree to Shining Tree,” on soil, plants, and animal life discovered in forest canopies
The Moth story — I wrote about a bike trip I took through the Avenue of the Giants, and a subscriber wrote that it reminded them of this podcast
“Life in the Michigan Forest” — an essay on trees and forest life near Ann Arbor, MI
“On the Dreams of Trees” — includes a story about an Australian project that gave trees email addresses, prompting love letters from around the world
“Naming the Trees” — an unpublished essay about one reader’s husband’s habit of naming and categorizing the trees in their Brooklyn neighborhood. The reader offered to ask their friend (the essay’s author) about sharing it directly.
“Starting at Harvard and Falling for Your First Tree” — a NYT article about a freshman seminar encouraging students to love the world by finding a tree to love, first
New York Arbor — Mitch Epstein’s photographs of NYC trees
Katie Holten — an artist with a special edition of The Language of Trees coming out soon
Rootsong — a Philadelphia Chamber Music Society event series inspired by trees and underground fungal communication
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Today is the last day to subscribe in time to get this month’s issue of The Cloud Report. You can do that here.
I painted some of my favorite places in Burlington this week for a project with Burlington Wilways:
It’s been a while since you’ve heard from me–sorry about that! I took an unplanned 6-week hiatus from my Substack. Summer is busy! I’m getting back into the swing of things.
Thanks for being here!
Christine Tyler Hill
Website: christinetylerhill.com
Email: cth@christinetylerhill.com
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