At 63, Pilsbury see himself as a "real imaginative 9-year-old."

At first, it's difficult to decide what is most identifiable about Joseph Pillsbury. There's the bright Hawaiian-style shirt he finds comfortable and relaxing. Maybe it's the broad, warm smile almost constantly gracing his face. Or it could be the compelling and contagious laugh he weaves effortlessly into his conversations.

Yet for anyone with a little time and a willingness to listen, Pillsbury's true talent is easily recognizable. He's a storyteller, one that fuses feelings and facts into an interesting, knowledgeable narrative.

"I call it teaching as a metaphortician," explains Pillsbury, who earned a bachelor's degree in social science with a social service option from Cal Poly Pomona in 1970, later earning a master's in behavioral science from the University of La Verne.

During a career that has included stints in vocation rehabilitation, teaching, and his current 17-year position with the Los Angeles County Department of Children & Family Services' Emergency Response Command Post, Pillsbury has often incorporated his talent into his work. He's also relied on it during volunteer efforts, such as serving on the board of directors of Inland Hospice Association, conducting bereavement groups for teens and their families, and helping at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden in Claremont.

It is his association with the garden that led to a new outlet for his talent: writing. "Joey and the Boojum Tree," a book first published in March 2002, tells the tale of a boy who befriends a lonely tree.

What makes the story so captivating is the way Pillsbury-who at age 63 sees himself as a "real imaginative nine-year old"-has blended fiction and reality.

It developed from his connection with a century-old boojum tree (Fouquieria columnaris, a non-cactus species related to the ocotillo found almost exclusively in the Cataviña Desert of central Baja California) that was moved from the Missouri Botanical Garden in downtown St. Louis to the Claremont facility.

A regular garden visitor (he began walking there in 1975 for health reasons), he and his wife, Rabyn Judith, were on an evening tour in the summer of 1995, not long after the boojum tree first arrived. His wife, an intuitive, looked at the tree and insisted he start talking to it during his walks.

"She said 'Give it as much energy as you can,'" he remembers, "so at first I'm talking to the tree. Later, I'm singing to it. Eventually, I start telling a story of how the tree has come so far and is lonely, stuff I just made up."

After becoming an official garden volunteer, he worked on a project to formally welcome the boojum tree to Claremont. As he retold and refined his story, listeners suggested he turn it into a book. Thus the magical story of an amazing nine-year old boy who can hear what trees and bushes say was created.

"Joey lives in the row of houses on the other side of the garden and is constantly sneaking over the fence and spending time there. Joey is special because he can listen in-between the layers of the wind," says Pillsbury. "One day he hears something strange, and when he investigates, he finds the boojum tree. The interesting thing is that when a boojum tree cries, it says its own name."

Available at Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden gift shop, the book sells for $7.50 and all proceeds go to support the garden. This summer, Pillsbury hopes to have an accompanying CD that goes with the book.

Now with a taste for writing, his next project is already lined out and he says just needs "a lot of bridging and molding."

"It's based on a lot of things from my personal life, one man's personal myth, you might say," he says with a smile. "It basically tells people to get away from hate and fear and to hang around love and forgiveness."

But that's another story for a different day.