Tentative Growth – Weekly Photo Challenge: Optimism

Prompted by The Daily Post's Weekly Photo Challenge: Optimism, I chose this picture from last April of delicate new leaves on young Box Alder trees that had been hacked down the previous summer.  It is truly astonishing how fast Box Alder Maple can grow in spite of poor conditions or trauma, and this trait of …

Beauteously Creepy – Weekly Photo Challenge: Creepy

In a list of the top 10 creepiest things, I am fairly certain most people would add insects and arachnids.  This photo of the brilliantly-colored Venusta Orchard Spider immediately came to my mind when I saw this week's Weekly Photo Challenge: Creepy from The Daily Post.  I had the unfortunate luck to walk right into …

Spring Training of the Fruit Tree – Weekly Photo Challenge: Off-Season

Near a small, untended apple orchard, there are a few thriving Autumn Olive trees. This was approximately a month ago, just before the pale yellow flowers had started to open. These trees are named for their very small, edible, olive-shaped fruits that begin to appear in Autumn, and both the leaves and the fruits of …

Mythwork: Darkening of the Cherry – A Tree Story

As I said in my previous post, I will be sharing stories from time spent with trees.  The assumption I was given to make about specific animal or tree kinds mentioned in the stories was that the story is told from a regional perspective, meaning things as they happened or are understood by the trees …

Pretty Bird, Pretty Bird – Haiku Catchoo! (Final Fifth)

Balanced lightly there On springy evergreen limb Ornamental perch Author's Notes... I have loved watching the birds at the feeders my dad keeps stocked with seed in the cold months ever since I can remember.  It is a habit now to notice birds on the ground, on the railings, in the sky, on the water, …

Roots: Heritage and Soul Nourishment

In this time of Samhain celebrations, heritage and what it means to me weighs heavily on my mind.  What is a heritage, and how is it passed on?  What are the ways we express our heritage, consciously or not?  In what ways does knowledge of heritage impact the psyche of the individual?  How does it impact …

Teardrops and Fingerbone Branches (Samhain)

We enter the womb tonight. It is only a matter of time… the trees are weeping! The trees are weeping in the dark! Weeping and wailing, the trees and leaves are celebrating the only Tradition. It is only a matter of time. She once was a maiden. She became a mother. But now the Crone …