veekas ashoka

A picture-book drawing of a tall old white oak with russet autumn leaves drifting down. At its foot a boy sits cross-legged with his back to us, looking at a green caterpillar in his hand, beside two sleeping dogs: Truman, white and shaggy, and Ellie, a scruffy black-and-tan terrier. A gray squirrel sits on the left limb with an acorn, a blue jay and a chickadee share the right limb, a moth and a ladybug rest on the bark, an inchworm dangles on a thread, a small butterfly sits on the asters while a bumblebee visits them, and goldenrod, a fern and mushrooms grow around the roots. This is a white oak in Beacon, New York, in autumn. Oaks feed more kinds of caterpillars than any other tree here, and those caterpillars feed the birds. Their acorns feed squirrels, jays and mice, which plant the next oaks, and their fallen leaves shelter the insects that sleep through winter. Most things in the picture have a little more to say about the tree.

Software engineer, founder of Allo, and volunteer EMT, at home in Beacon, New York, with his young son.

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