PINE POINT AND The Church O’ The Pines are all about—you guessed it—pines. I have always—since the age of seven and a first trip to the great North Woods—loved pines. Now I live beneath and among them, many in our old stand 125 years of age or more. I have often wished that Aldo Leopoldo had not written it first so that I could: “I love all trees, but I am in love with pines.” He went on to plant thousands of them on the worn-out landscape around his Sand County shack.

Here are some other favorite pine quotes:

The space between any two pines is the doorway to another world. John Muir

Pines and pines and the shadows of pines, as far as the eye can see. Robert Service

In the pines, in the pines, where the sun never shines, and you shiver when the cold wind blows. Old bluegrass song

To me a lush carpet of needles… is more welcome than the most luxurious Persian rug. Helen Keller

In the storm like a prophet, thou singest and tossest thy branches. James Russell Lowell

You can live for years next door to a big pine tree, honored to have so venerable a neighbor, even though it sheds its needles all over your flowers or wakes you, dropping big cones onto your deck at still of night. Denise Levertov

No writing on the solitary, meditative dimensions of life can say anything that has not already been said better by the wind in the pine trees. Thomas Merton

Growing seems to be a common trait among living things. But I wonder if anyone has ever done it better than an old pine. Douglas Wood