Diary entries from Frank A. Waugh (1869-1943) prompted the beginning of this blog over ten years ago.  I’ve been working on a book about Waugh, who began a program in landscape gardening between 1902 and 1903, back when UMass was the Massachusetts Agricultural College, (M.A.C.). During my research, I unearthed some of Frank’s daily journals and diaries from 1899 through 1922 in the basement of a great grandchild. She had them on loan from her dad, Dr. John S. Waugh. Because some of the pages were both moldy and brittle, I quickly and gingerly photographed all the entries. To sift through the contents with more consideration, this blog was born. Initially, I decided to concentrate on Waugh’s entries from 1911, while I added my own entries from 2011, one hundred years later. No reflections, just raw entries. Now the blog is morphing into selected portraits of trees which drew or would have drawn Waugh’s interest. A story of some historic or contemporary note will be featured with each tree. The value of trees can’t be underestimated- from the global role they play in helping our climate crisis to the well being they can promote through such acts as forest bathing. Taking time to appreciate trees through portraits and stories, this will run with occasional posts.

Waugh playing his flute along a brook