Tree City

One of my favorite things about Eugene is the greenery. The downside of course is that it rains almost constantly (though not as often as it used to as I mentioned in a previous post) which is what makes it so green.

Sure, most cities have intentional sections of greenery throughout (most cities I'd be willing to live in anyway) but in Eugene it's as though the intention of the city planners is secondary. Nature kind of takes over in Eugene, so that the lawns and gardens look wild and raw, moss lines the cracks on the sidewalks, trees planted downtown are as big around as the ones you'd expect to find in the middle of a forest, fences are overgrown with viney plants and more moss (the difference between moss and mildew is that mildew is gross whereas moss is soft and pretty. That and some scientific classifications) and the domestic flowers look like wild flowers. It's as though everyone started growing things three years ago and then forgot about them, leaving them to take over. It sounds graceless, but it's wonderful. There's an energy in Oregon cities that doesn't seem to exist anywhere else. Like the people there are living in nature instead of trying to control it.