Tree rooted deeply in her past

By Lawrence Powell

The Spectator

NovaNewsNow.com

Valerie Mount spent 34 years ‘away,’ but she never forgot her Deep Brook roots or the home that was grandfather Edgar (Ned) Adam’s. In fact that’s where she lives now and the view of the water is spectacular as you look out across Highway 1 from the shade of maples, cherry trees, dogwood, and the giant white ash.

Val wasn’t born in grandfather Ned’s house, but her parents Aubrey Young and Nina (Adams) Young lived there until they built their own home next door. They moved into the cottage-style residence in 1937 with their three children and Val was born a few years later.

From her front yard, Val and the other kids could grab their sleds in the wintertime and push off at the top of the terrace behind her grandfather’s house and slide down the hill and all the way across the field to the west.

The little hill may have seemed bigger when Val was a kid, but the sled with the steel runners that her grandfather made for her would go like a rocket – and the only way to steer was with her feet. That meant the kids had to be very careful to avoid crashing into that giant white ash at the bottom on the edge of the field.

“We always had to watch out that we didn’t hit it,” Val says.

The tree really was a giant back in the 1940s and Val says it has always been part of her memories even though she can’t recall ever having tried to climb it. That may be because of its shear girth and height of even the lowest branches. The tree looks like something out of a rain forest.

“It’s definitely part of our history,” Val says.

When Val grew up she moved away, spending much of her life in Ontario, and eight years in British Columbia. Her grandfather’s house went out of the family for a while, but Val’s brother Dale bought it back in 1969 and when Val came home in 1990, she bought it from her brother. Next year the house turns 100 and Val already has plans in the works for a birthday party. She has a complete genealogy of the house and knows every owner and occupant going back a century.

No doubt the old white ash tree that grew as the house aged will figure into the birthday party. Recently the tree was honoured for its immensity, and Val received a plaque and framed photo from the Nova Scotia Forest Technicians Association.

Val had known about the association’s Largest Tree competition but had never done anything about it until Wayne Hubley suggested the old white ash was a prime candidate for nomination in the 2007 version of the event.

The association took a look at it, took measurements, and decided Hubley was right. It was a winner. The white ash is 19 metres tall (62.3 feet) and has a diameter of 140 centimetres (4.6 feet) for a circumference of 440 centimetres or 14.4 feet.

According to Natural Resources Canada’s ‘A Handbook to Maritime Tress,’ white ash likes to grow in rich, moist, well-drained soils on riverbanks and slopes. They can grow to 23 metres high and 70 centimetres in diameter.

Val loves her Deep Brook roots and she loves the canopy of foliage that has shaded generations, protected her home from cold winds, and kept the grass green.

She loves the old ash tree rooted so deeply in her past.