Pine is a tree for all the senses. I’ve had a lot of favourites in my time – oak, plum, apple, silver birch – but recently I’ve begun to appreciate just how great pine is.
That’s got a lot to do with living in lowland, sandy, flinty-soiled Sweden where pines line the back of every sand dune, making everywhere feel like Winnie the Pooh country.
A feast for the senses
Pine has it all. The dazzling rusty red bark, those blue-green needles that look dusty in summer and glow bright in winter, that smell like a long lost dream, that taste… that taste?
Retsina… wine of the Greek gods
Now I know pine-resinated wine is one that splits people like Marmite, but as a pine enthusiast I claim that even the taste of pine in those sun-kissed Greek mouthfuls is glorious.
Pine isn’t just nice to see, smell and taste, it also provides the finest climbing of any tree. It’s numerous, regular spread of branches makes it inviting to even the most amateur of tree climbers.
Pine makes me feel fine
Sitting in the branches of a pine, with the canopy filtering a hot sun, the scent of resin and armies of ants marching up the branches is the finest of places to be.
Even when chopped down – RIP – the pine morphs into an architectural gem. Perhaps the original and most glorious use for this wood is in a space any reader of my blog will know is very close to my heart: the sauna. In a sauna, the scent of pine is once more the glory, just as it is when the tree is in full bloom.
So, I raise a toast… To that most majestic of trees: the pine.
This boy likes trees, but apparently Boys Don’t Like Flowers