Audrey Burch

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPH:

I am a lifelong Butler County resident born and raised in Hamilton. And I rented my very first apartment ever in Middletown in April of 2020.

I chose a photo of a very large chestnut tree. It's one of two growing next to each other in the lobby of a medical building on North Breiel. One of the things people are trying to do with revitalizing resilient and sustainable food systems is growing nuts. I would like to go back to school to get a degree and learn how to get involved in improving food systems. I was just walking around and saw the trees last year and got super excited. I decided to take a look and they were all like producing pollen and stuff. It's an example of how blessed we are to have land where other living beings like that have room to grow. Just imagine how many people it would take to put their arms around it. 

The first few years I lived here I was just hanging out with people I met during such stressful times that it wasn't healthy to even be around them. So I walked that stretch around Grand Avenue a lot. But this time I walked a street that I used to walk for other reasons just to like, go catch the bus in a different spot. And so I just got to enjoy being in a nice quiet neighborhood with cute little houses and nice yards and checking on the trees.