By Peter Albert, DTNA President

With each newsletter, I pick a tree from the Duboce Triangle to celebrate in recognition that trees are, to a great extent, what makes this neighborhood a great place. Chinese Magnolias are blooming, maytens are swaying and plum blossoms perfume the air, but my attention is diverted by one very tall Norfolk Island Pine.

The pine is midblock, between 14th, Noe, Castro and Henry. You might see it standing up on the McKinley grounds, or in glimpses between homes on the streets that border the block. If you live on this block, as I do, though, you probably know this tree well.

You would probably also know the people who own it: the Pochrans, tall, elegant, poised, cheery year-round. They are long-time Duboce Triangle residents and beacons of welcome to all newcomers on the block. Their tree, to which all the adjectives above also apply, stands over sixty feet tall from my calculations.

I'll spend an afternoon watching the tree from my upper floor, which is high enough that no other object, structural or natural, blocks my view of the sky and clouds when I am seated. Whole flocks of birds call this pine their perch. Crows as big as raccoons squawk from its top. Finches and sparrows dart and flit, then take wing in a sudden rush. A hummingbird will trace and study the tree's perfect conical form, then veer away horizontally. That famous gaggle of parrots announces their arrival by abrupt cacophony: I never manage to find them among the dark green branches, I only hear them come and go.

Sometimes a real beauty - a western tanager, lately - will land on the pine and then hop upward. I don't wonder why the birds always hop up. If I could, I, too, would climb higher for a better view from this tree, unrivaled in height on our block, perhaps our neighborhood. As it is, I am happy to settle for the view from my window.