Tree Love: A Network of Energy Above and Below Ground

“Messages hum from out of the bark she leans against. Chemical semaphores home in over the air. Currents rise from the soil-gripping roots, relayed over great distances through fungal synapses linked up in a network the size of the planet.” Richard Powers, The Overstory

This could be a doorway to the secret underground network:

Look closely. See the door?

Doorway Tree

Trees with moss

Spanish Moss

Before yoga class at the senior center, I’m just looking for tree shade to park under. After yoga class, I am more aware of the trees themselves. They call to me with an energy stronger than the noise of highway traffic. Their energy is always there, of course. When we pay close attention, we feel the trees hum and allow ourselves to be entranced.

Spanish Moss Swaying in the Breeze

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

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/

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: Bald Cypress, Blue Skies, and Spanish Moss

These cypress trees live in and around the lake at a city park David and I visited in December. The walk around the lake is five miles which I’ve done in years past and might do again one day. Most of the trees are hung with Spanish moss, which is not technically a moss, but is a bromeliad, a flowering plant. I’ve never noticed the flowers, which must be small, so I’m going to look more closely this spring. In French Polynesia, Spanish moss is called, “grandpa’s beard.”

Many years ago, I draped Spanish moss over black lace on a pith helmet for a Halloween costume. First I had to shake the moss out and wash it having discovered tiny insects living in it. I got an honorable mention in the costume contest and was dubbed “The Swamp Witch.” Now, I leave the Spanish moss and the tiny insects in the trees where they belong.

Bald cypress and Spanish moss are common in swamps of the southern US

You can click on the following photos individually for a better look and descriptions.

Wishing you blue skies and plenty of tree love!

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

For more Tree Love, visit:

#ThursdayTreeLove – 102 – happiness and food

Thursday Tree Love: Live Oak with Spanish Moss

This particular southern live oak lives in Airlie Gardens near the coast of North Carolina.

The grounds keepers were just starting to decorate for the holidays, but nature has already decorated with Spanish Moss catching the afternoon sunlight.

My favorite work of human art in the gardens is this bottle house which also catches the sunlight.

Thursday Tree Love is hosted by Tharul Pakur on the second and fourth Thursday of each month.

For more tree love, visit:

#ThursdayTreeLove – 99 – happiness and food