Thursday Tree Love: Tolerating Human Intrusion

Tree in the median near the Basilica of Saint Mary

In the older parts of my city, including downtown and my neighborhood, electrical/utility lines still crisscross overhead. The branches of old trees are cut away from the lines in what often appear as grotesque deformities. Still, most of the trees seem to adapt. In newer neighborhoods, the utility lines are buried underground which looks better from a human perspective and reduces storm damage. Who knows what the trees and mycelium network prefer? They would probably prefer we let them grow naturally without intrusion. I am grateful for these trees putting up with us as they continue to provide shade, habitat, and oxygen.

Winter

Same tree in spring

Another tree in May

This one is hanging on.

Do you see a face?

It will fill out by summer

Basilica of Saint Mary and campaign signs

Thursday Tree Love is hosted by Parul Thakur on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. For more tree love, visit Parul at: https://www.happinessandfood.com/thursdaytreelove-129/

Thursday Tree Love: On the Curve

(If you zoom in, you can see the resurrection fern growing on the branches.)

This live oak tree has been living on the inner edge of the curve for a long time. I’m thankful it’s still there being so close to the street. Diving around this curve was a bit of a challenge when I moved into the nearby neighborhood thirty-something years ago. Now it’s a comforting landmark telling me I’m almost home. Most things get better with practice.

Thursday Tree Love is hosted by Parul Thakur on the second and fourth Thursday of each month.

For more tree love, visit Parul by clicking HERE.

Thursday Tree Love: Live Oak with Resurrection Fern and Spanish Moss Over Water

“Those who dwell among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life.” – Rachel Carson

My friend enticed me to go to Airlie Gardens a couple of weeks ago to take pictures. I’m so glad we went. It was a perfect spring morning. This cluster of live oaks leaning over the water were among my favorites.

Skirted by azaleas, the trunks provided a home for resurrection fern. Branches leaning over water were draped in Spanish Moss.

View from the other side

Thursday Tree Love is hosted on the second and fourth Thursday of each month by Paurl Thakur. For more tree love, visit Parul at: https://www.happinessandfood.com/thursdaytreelove-127/

#ThursdayTreeLove | When Great Trees Fall, or My Father’s Tree

I’m sharing this post from Chandra to save her experience and Maya Angelou’s poem about great trees and great souls. May we always remember.

Pics and Posts

Yesterday, while I was considering using the tree above for today’s #ThursdayTreeLove, I received a text message from my Raven, asking if I were in my office. I had a moment of excitement thinking she was visiting from California and was on her way to see me. Sadly, that was not the case. However, she had her sister, who lives in the area, deliver a beautiful “forever bouquet” with an elegant note tucked inside that only an English major could write [Biased? Perhaps]. Her note included the last verse of Maya Angelou’s poem below.

When Great Trees Fall
Maya Angelou

When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare…

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Thursday Tree Love: Blooming Dogwoods

“The really happy person is the one who can enjoy the scenery, even when they have to take a detour.”
― Sir James Jeans (1877-1946, English physicist, astronomer, and mathematician.)

Dogwoods in Bloom

The dogwood trees seem to have blossomed overnight here in North Carolina. These in my neighborhood got me to pause and take a slight detour. Some detours turn out to be blessings.

Below are some of my favorite dogwood blossom photos from recent years:

A gift in my path

Thursday Tree Love is hosted by Parul Thakur on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. For more Tree Love, visit Parul by clicking HERE.

Thursday Tree Love: Early Blooming Bradford Pear Trees

This tree likes the light pole.

“Pyrus calleryana, or the Callery pear, is a species … native to China and Vietnam….most commonly known for its cultivar ‘Bradford’, widely planted throughout the United States and increasingly regarded as an invasive species.” (From Wikipedia)

It annoys me when people call a tree or animal species “invasive.” The tree or animal is just doing what it needs to do to survive. Bradford Pear trees are certainly abundant around here. Being early bloomers, they stand out and seem to be wherever I look. That’s okay with me. They make me smile. Birds and bees like them, too.

The tree above is in the parking lot at the grocery store. I’m so thankful for the shade trees provide in summer. Crows seemed to like this tree. Can you find the crow in the next photo?

The crow is a silhouette just above and left of center

Here are a few more Bradford Pear Trees I’ve seen in the past few days:

Along the road to the grocery store

It was a nice day for me and the trees.

There’s a house hiding back there

This tree and century plant live near the parking lot of the mission store where David works

Thursday Tree Love is hosted by Parul Thankur on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. For more Tree Love, visit Parul at the link below:

#ThursdayTreeLove – 125

Thursday Tree Love: Holly Tree with Berries

“Sometimes all it takes is a subtle shift in perspective, an opening of the mind, an intentional pause and reset, or a new route to start to see new options and new possibilities.” Kristin Armstrong

…

I had not really seen this holly tree until I was photographing Mother Pine for my previous Tree Love post. They are neighbors living near the senior center parking lot. I’ll be sure to appreciate the holly’s shade this summer.

Holly branches in front of Mother Pine

American Holly Tree aka ilex

Shady parts

Holly Berries

Thursday Tree Love is hosted on the second and fourth Thursday by Parul Thakur. For more tree love, visit Parul’s post HERE.

Thursday Tree Love: Mother Pine and her Children

At the Base of Mother Pine

Looking up

Mother Pine dressed in vines

you have sheltered the young

surrounding your base,

nourishing them, connecting them

to the magic mycelium maze

Intertwining your roots.

We do not know who will survive

But we will cherish each moment of life.

These young pine trees and their mother grow in a park near the senior center. I don’t know what will happen to the young trees, but it made me smile to see them growing in a semicircle around the base of the mother tree on a gray February afternoon.

Thursday Tree Love is hosted by Parul Thakur on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. For more Tree Love, visit Parul’s blog, here: https://www.happinessandfood.com/thursdaytreelove-123/

Thursday Tree Love: Tree-lined Grace

Live Oaks Along Grace Street

Live oak trees lean over the street named Grace near a big brick church called Grace United. I often take this road on my way home from errands in the historic downtown section of my city. In the summertime, the shade is a welcome relief. In winter, the leaves are mostly green, though a little thinner, continuing to give oxygen to humans and other animals.

Heading East toward Home

Heading West to Downtown

The large branches, draped in Spanish moss, provide a feeling of shelter to drivers, pedestrians, birds, bugs, and squirrels.

Spanish Moss

Spanish Moss

Oak with a palm friend

Little door with ferns on the porch

Spanish Moss

Canopy with sun

Do you see what looks like a little door at the bottom of the tree trunk?

Thursday Tree Love is hosted by Parul Thakur on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. For more Tree Love, visit Parul’s post HERE.

Today’s prompt for Just Jot it January is, “understanding.” Thanks to Wendy for the wonderful prompt and to Linda Hill for hosting. Click HERE for #jusjojan details. When I took these tree photos yesterday, I was standing under the trees, so I guess you could say, I was understanding, or trying to. Trees communicate in different ways, mostly underground with each other. But if you put your hands on a tree and are very quiet, you might feel them humming. I hope and pray we humans can all come to understand the life-giving importance of living trees.

Thursday Tree Love: Breathe, a Poem

Thanksgiving Day 2021

For this edition of Tree Love, I offer a poem by Becky Helmsley interspersed with tree photos.

Breathe, by Becky Helmsley

“She sat at the back, and they said she was shy,

She led from the front and they hated her pride,

They asked her advice and then questioned her guidance,

They branded her loud, then were shocked by her silence,

When she shared no ambition, they said it was sad,

So she told them her dreams and they said she was mad,

They told her they’d listen, then covered their ears,

And gave her a hug while they laughed at her fears,

And she listened to all of it thinking she should,

Be the girl they told her to be best as she could,

But one day she asked what was best for herself,

Instead of trying to please everyone else,

So she walked to the forest and stood with the trees,

She heard the wind whisper and dance with the leaves,

She spoke to the willow, the elm and the pine,

And she told them what she’d been told time after time,

She told them she felt she was never enough,

She was either too little or far far too much,

Too loud or too quiet, too fierce or too weak,

Too wise or too foolish, too bold or too meek,

Then she found a small clearing surrounded by firs,

And she stopped…and she heard what the trees said to her,

And she sat there for hours not wanting to leave,

For the forest said nothing, it just let her breathe”

Becky Helmsley

Thursday Tree Love is hosted by Parul Thakur on the second and fourth Thursday of each month. For more tree love, visit Parul at: https://www.happinessandfood.com/thursdaytreelove-121/