This tree

The black walnut outside my bedroom window sports a piercing face which i have painted. This tree was merely a 3 inch diameter sapling when I moved here with husband and year old son; it grew by the gate to the fenced off garden area where farmers had kept calves years before 1974. I remember it particularly well, because my neighbor, Nancy, came over with a fence pole digger to demonstrate its use - ha! a difficult tool for a woman to use as our upper body strength is poor. Nancy and I managed to dig a hole. The black walnut was nearby. I didn't know then that it was a walnut, nor that gardeners don't appreciate black walnuts near gardens! As it is, I rake the nuts in the fall because I've found that left on the ground under a snow can prove hazardous - especially as the tree is in the path I take to the woodshed. But I admire this tree, its proud dancer's trunk.