I'm Adali Mom and this is The Slowdown.

Here's a real question for you.

Do you have a favorite tree or do you have a tree that you remember really well from

a moment in your life?

I asked myself this question last spring and suddenly, accidentally, ended up writing

an 11,000 word essay about trees.

So be careful with this question, but also maybe don't be careful with this question

because you know what I can't get enough of?

Trees.

Yesterday, our last day in my home valley, my husband and I went to the Jack London

saloon in Glenellan.

This is where we had a small gathering the night before our wedding five years ago.

A favorite bar of ours as unpretentious as they come, full of locals, it's been around

since the early 1900s.

It has a huge patio that's shaded by oaks and alters and even on warm summer days, it's

cool enough to sit outside in the shade.

I love this spot for numerous reasons, but the best part about it is that it's right

where two creeks come together, the colabossus creek emptying into the Sonoma Creek.

When I was younger, we tried to inner tube down the shallow trickle of water during the

early summer and we never got very far, but we loved it.

And last night, we sat on the creek and toasted to our twelve years of being together.

As we did, an eagrid fished from minnows and we watched as it patiently stalked the

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