I have been admiring the juniper. Other coniferous trees – the fir, spruce, pine – they look more perky, full, upward reaching, erect. The juniper, with its saturated deep green and cloudy, blue grey berry seems so bogged down by excess moisture, so forlorn, so heavy. The whole posture and disposition of the juniper is all its own.

Then, completely independent of this thought process, just yesterday, Townes brought me a small branch from a juniper. “Look how beautiful this is,” he said. And he went on to tell me that junipers, elms, and joshua trees are his favorites.