The truck hauled away a load of sawdust from the chipper.
Many logs are left to season and be cut into firewood.
The stump of the Fairy Tree is a gorgeous shape.
There was a glow-in-the-dark star left on the stump.
The rotten roots at the water had a giant hole in the center.
Generally it is not as messy as expected.
The tree that was trimmed up looks like I envisioned.
I am pleased with this progress, years overdue.
FLOW
When oaks get messy it’s a sign of decline. There are symptoms that let you know when one needs to go. Conch fungi at the base should not be ignored.
The tree near the water had been showing signs by growing fungi at its base and a hole forming underneath.
The tree near the ramp had its roots in the septic lines and grew extremely fast. The death at its core was sort of a surprise.
The oak at the road was planted thirty years ago. This one was trimmed on one side due to power lines. That meant the side toward the house and downhill was fuller and thus heavier.
We hired a company we have used several times before, Watt Tree Service. They do excellent work and clean up as they work.
This experienced crew provided several hours of entertainment today. The climber is sixty-one years old and is a third-generation climber. His brother also climbs and was doing a different job today right across the river.
If you have trees, you need to keep an eye out for decline, disease and bad form. It is important to hire experts, so that your trees will not be trimmed like lollipops that will medusa out later and cause even more problems.
It is worth paying for experienced, skilled crews with the proper equipment. Tree problems just get worse if not addressed.
FLOWER
Before this election I wrote letters and blogs, joined groups and sent money from my tiny retirement account to any credible opposition organization.
I am NOT in a political party. I have no loyality to any group except the underdogs of this world. For the downtrodden, I will be a vicious protector. I take my role as Mama Bear seriously.
I am writing letters, blogs, and checks again. If the Department of Education and Social Security get decimated, that retirement account will dwindle. If the USPS disappears I cannot send letters.
My point is… could you folks who made the mistake of voting for the new King stand up and help dethrone this scary, selfish, sex-offender?
Even those not in the USA would benefit from having this man and his sidekick removed from the White House.
I know it is hard to wrap your head around this level of evil, but please help right this terrible wrong ASAP.
Those brave, badass women need your help.
Love and kisses,
FLOWER/ SNAPDRAGON/Mama Bear/ Badass/ Woke and Soon-to-be Broke
My brain wakes me up to tell me things. It has happened again tonight.
Something that I have been pondering on morphs into something else like a shape-shifting bucky ball.
I wake up seeing the obvious connections that were hidden. I finally see the trees in the forest. It is embarrasing what my awake mind misses when my asleep mind points it out.
Family tragedies that I thought of as linear and separate linked in my mind as ONE. I have mentioned these in a previous post, but instead of them following each in a linear, chronological fashion; they folded back on each other, like a time circle.
Great grandma’s husband was killed by a train on her farm.
Gran’s father was killed by a train on the family farm.
Ethel’s brother was killed by a train on the Pearson farm.
The same tragedy from three perspectives. Three interconnected women losing a piece of their lives.
Three dots connected by one man and disconnected by one tragedy.
Reconnected by the responsibility in caring for the widow of a farmer hit by a train.
Tranferring the care of the farm to family men and the widow to family women.
The shape-shifting of a family due to a tragedy.
This 2D story finally became 3D in the middle of the night. Maybe this time-circle-trio will take form after all!
I am slow, but I do get there…in my sleep.
FLOW
I am a good girl because that’s what my Daddy wanted. Well actually he wanted a boy, but I did my best to be a good girl, tomboy, green-thumbed, smart child. I mostly did what I thought I should do.
I continued this as an adult. I aquiesced over and over. I let myself be over-ruled. I went along, especially when I was uncertain.
Paths were taken to please others…and now I am here. In the wrong place, in the wrong life. Counting down the years.
But this year has been too bad to go along with. My parents’ homeplace was sold. The things from my past are scattered with strangers. My soulmate, Sandra, died five weeks after surgery to remove cancer. I injured one hip while awaiting surgery on the other.
I could go on and on here. I won’t. Something changed as I was lying in my bed waiting to walk again. Acquiescing no longer seemed like an option. I wanted to follow my own path, not the “should” breadcrumbs left for me to follow.
Then the Universe stepped in just when I was sinking in the care-giver quicksand.
My good friend, Joyce, sent me a link to a Cheryl Strayed workshop occurring in March near my family’s mountain house. I signed up. Then I figured it would be a good thing to read all things Strayed in preparation. The Universe prepared me by encouraging me to order Tiny Beautiful Things months ago.
So into my life comes Dear Sugar the advice column writer that tells it straight/Strayed.
I am at my sister’s house helping her recover from knee-replacement. It is snowing. I finally have quiet time to absorb what Dear Sugar is saying. Low and behold, she is talking to me, Miss Be Good Do What You Should.
She put in black and white what people who love me were afraid to say. It is time to find my path and quit aquiescing.
I must be strong. I must be brave. I must set a good example for Rose.
Get ready world. Get out of our way.
Thanks Sugar and Joyce and the Universe
FLOWER (in bold)
This gorgeous camellia is a favorite snack of our deer herd. I have been fencing it in and trimming it up to protect it.
New blooms appear for weeks through February and March. The flowers have perfect symmetry during all stages of blooming.
White by the Gate is one of my two Camellia “winter roses.”
FLOWER
Edgeworthia is attracting the attention of pollinators with bright colors and fragrance.
It is a welcome sign that spring will arrive despite the present temperatures and threat of snow.
No worries. These fuzzy blooms can take the cold and ice.
I was glad to be home to enjoy this lovely shrub.
FLOWER
I heard the crow’s wings beating the air as it flew silently over my head and landed in the tree next to me.
There are always crows here in the mountains.
They are usually squawking and cawing. They are too noisy.
But I did like the sound of the crow’s wings.
FLOW among the crows.
Sometimes the signs are too obvious to ignore. I have been monitoring the conchs at the base of this oak for many years.
Next, a species of bracket fungi colonized in a crevasse at its base several years ago and have continually replaced several generations of fruiting bodies.
The final sign is a huge hole under the base. Long sticks can be pushed deep down in the earth.
When I removed these today, they were actually cold on a warm day.
I will miss this tree, but it seems to lean toward the neighbors pier. That liability was its death blow.
I hope I am here to record the Watt Tree Service team’s removal of this huge oak. Sad but absolutely necessary.
FLOWER
floweralley 