Cedars of Lebanon

Certain things in Salt Lake City are memory triggers for me. That is, when I see a certain building or plant, in this case a ceder of Lebanon on Temple Square, a series of memories flash inside my head.

I first noticed the cedar of Lebanon on Temple Square last December. My bishop's wife invited me to a baroque concert at the Assembly Hall, and on the way back home the bishop pointed it out. 

I shared that I had fallen in love with cedars of Lebanon in England on a hiking study abroad trip back in 2003. 

According to my memory, the best cedars were in Salisbury. In 2003, my school group checked into the YHA Salisbury hostel, nestled under a handsome cedar, and then walked down the hill to Salisbury Cathedral. 

Dr. John Bennion briefing us on the Magna Carta. 

The south transept of the cathedral adjoins a cloistered green, where four cedars of Lebanon grow, their bows stretching over the walls.

The trees were planted by Queen Victoria in the late 1800s. From what I've been able to find on the internet, she planted cedars wherever she made royal visits so that all could be heirs and beneficiaries of her reign. 

  

Whenever I think of Salisbury, I think of the painter John Constable, who painted Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds, in 1825. I first came across it in 1997 in my AP Art History text book.

I like the painting because of the image of the stone cathedral next to the living grandeur of trees and cows. 

In homage to Constable, I walked a few blocks away from the Cathedral with fellow student Spencer Green. We sat on a fence post and sketched in our notebooks for 30 minutes. I'm no Constable, but I was quite pleased with the result. 

That night, back in the hostel, we heard explosions. We dropped our classwork and frantically rushed down the stairs, out the front door, and gathered under the bows of the giant cedar of Lebanon.

Before us, in the valley, the cathedral's spire shimmered in ecstatic firework-light.

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The trees of the Lord are full of sap; the cedars of Lebanon, which he hath planted. Psalm 104:16