I had started climbing trees about three years earlier. Or rather, restarted; for I had been at a school that had a wood for its playground. We had climbed and christened the different trees (Scorpio, The Major Oak, Pegasus), and fought for their control in territorial conflicts with elaborate rules and fealties. My father had built my brother and me a tree house in our garden, which we had defended successfully for years against pirate attack. In my late twenties, I had begun to climb trees again. Just for the fun of it: no ropes, and no danger either.
Lighting in my house is awful. The brown is more purply in person.
[Image Description: a beginner's gouache painting of a tree, from the bottom looking up at a tangle of branches as the leaves go from darker to lighter the further up the go. In the bottom left it says "I never could climb trees..." End I.D.]
In reference to a private conversation I had in my head
Turner Design gouache in Strathmore Five Hundred mixed media sketchbook