My Beautiful Tree--Kurt Chambers

I have a great novel in the making. It's a children's novel called, The World in Johnny's Back Garden. The idea behind the story is to give children an alternate view of the living things around them. I was originally going to tell a series of adventure stories through the POV of different creatures. That idea has changed many times since then, but the concept behind the story has always remained the same. I'm not going to go into great detail about this novel as I'm still not sure where I'm taking it myself, and I only have the first chapter down so far. This chapter features a tree that Johnny, the MC, tells a story about to his little sister. This tree will also come into the story at the end of the book, but I'm not going to give any clues away to spoil the ending just yet. My intention is not to plug my novel, but to use this as a link to tell you a real life story about my very own beautiful tree. My Beautiful Tree I've always had green fingers ever since I was little. I can grow anything. When I was a little kid, about eight years old, I found one of those helicopters that you get from a sycamore tree. Just for the record, here in England we have helicopters on our sycamore trees, unlike the spiky balls you have over in your country. I only learned this last week when I had this discussion with Annie...lol...This helicopter had a little root growing out of it. I was totally amazed! I didn't know that's where trees come from...lol...I rushed home to show my mum. I explained where I'd found it, by the miniature trees the council planted. She let me plant it in the garden. I took great care of it as I watched it grow. It was awesome! Within a year or so, it had grown as big as the 6' fence. I had to tie a bit of rope around the trunk and tie it to the fence to stop it from blowing over. It was still quite spindly and I didn't want it to snap. As kids do, I forgot about it for a while. Some months later, I went out to look at my ever growing tree and found it had grown over the rope I had tied around it. Horrified by this find, I tried to get it out, but it had already eaten into the trunk. I was so worried my beautiful tree was going to die. :( It was a very stressful time for me. I loved my tree. The only reason my mum had let me plant this tree is because she thought it was a miniature, but it turned out it must have blown over from Mobbsbury Woods. It grew into a full size tree by the time I left home at seventeen, and had grown bigger than the house. It was very impressive. You could see a blooming canopy of leaves sprouting over the rooftops as soon as you turned the corner into the street. It was the first thing I would look for whenever I came home. Everyone hated it...lol...except me. It made a mess of their gardens, the roots lifted the fence, and it was swamped with insects in the summer. I couldn't see what all the fuss was about. I love trees and I especially loved my cool tree. It had helicopters and everything! haha!! When my parents split up and sold the house, I had kids of my own by then. Just before they handed over the house, I went into the garden and climbed my tree right to the top :) It was awesome! How many people do you know who have grow their own tree from a seed and then climbed it as a fully grown tree? I'm very proud of that. :) There is a sad ending to this little tale. The new owners of the house obviously hated my tree as much as everyone else. They chopped it down :'( My beautiful tree is no longer with us. I still live only a few streets away from my old family home. In my garden, I have an even bigger tree. It's a real giant. So big in fact that you can see it on a satellite image on Google maps...lol...I love it! It's awesome! I will always remember my first tree though. My beautiful tree. I hope you enjoyed my story. :) Now my tree will live on in the minds of people from all over the world who read this blog.