English has lots of idioms and some of them are about trees and forests. Here is one which means a particular local area that somebody is familiar with:
neck of the woods
This is used in conversation like this:
What brings you to this neck of the woods? (meaning I'm surprised to see you here; I thought you were normally somewhere else)
You don't get good bakeries in this neck of the woods (there are no good ones locally at all)
You can use this phrase about the countryside or the town.
Another idiom using forests is out of the woods.
This means out of difficulty or danger; imagine being lost in the woods and then finding your way out again. However it is now applied to many situations.
After many difficult years, the cafe is finally out of the woods. (the business is doing much better and can survive)
Out of the woods is often used negatively, perhaps more often than positively:
We are not out of the woods yet!
For more tree sayings, see my other column,
https://cafetalk.com/column/read/?c=eJwLzEgNdiryrsrOiIgssawod_UJNa0qt7UFAG2pCJE.&lang=en
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