NAKED ARISTOCRACY

New England winter trees have a naked austerity that you can’t find in coastal California. Not as tall and straight as redwoods or eucalyptus, but nonetheless upright, pale, and leafless, they exude this kind of blanched elitism despite their denuded state. They do not look asleep. White Oaks in particular. Their flaking, crusty bark issues a harsh reprove that you’d never get from a Coast Live Oak, old and twisted, green and comfortable .