Tree Story #17: Reunion

(Another excerpt from my own journal... see the piece in progress in my studio at my Wanderings blog.)


Took a drive over to James’ and Janet’s property - some day a retirement home will be there - wandered around and talked of plans, admired views, this cluster of trees marks the property line at one point.

Back at Butch and Linda’s I set off to wander again. Little cousin Edie wants to come along, so I sit down by the naked ladies to wait for her to put her shoes on. Edie takes me for a walk and shows me the creek through the gate, just off the property. This is her grandparents’ house and she knows her way around pretty well - as well as any seven-year-old would. But I think Edie took me through poison - I hope not - I was watching her instead of watching out.

We wander back onto the property; Edie finds her brother’s long lost hat and her long lost doll. We camp out on the big rock outcropping I stopped at yesterday and I let her shoot a few frames on the Izone, I shoot a couple with the Land Camera. “Grandma and Grandpa’s woods” hold high adventure: Edie climbs a tree to fetch an old light switch plate made of clear blue plastic and adorned with silver glitter. Old treasures abound here.

The light is fading - I’m guessing it’s time to head back.

Tree Story #39: Jacob’s Ladder

(Updated story for this one... final piece coming soon.)


Meanwhile, Jacob left Beersheba and traveled toward Haran. At sundown he arrived at a good place to set up camp and stopped there for the night. Jacob found a stone to rest his head against and lay down to sleep. As he slept, he dreamed of a stairway that reached from the earth up to heaven. And he saw the angels of God going up and down the stairway.

At the top of the stairway stood the Lord, and he said, “I am the Lord, the God of your grandfather Abraham, and the God of your father, Isaac. The ground you are lying on belongs to you. I am giving it to you and your descendants. Your descendants will be as numerous as the dust of the earth! They will spread out in all directions—to the west and the east, to the north and the south. And all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. What’s more, I am with you, and I will protect you wherever you go. One day I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have finished giving you everything I have promised you.”

Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it!” But he was also afraid and said, “What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!”

The next morning Jacob got up very early. He took the stone he had rested his head against, and he set it upright as a memorial pillar. Then he poured olive oil over it. He named that place Bethel (which means “house of God”), although the name of the nearby village was Luz.

Then Jacob made this vow: “If God will indeed be with me and protect me on this journey, and if he will provide me with food and clothing, and if I return safely to my father’s home, then the Lord will certainly be my God. And this memorial pillar I have set up will become a place for worshiping God, and I will present to God a tenth of everything he gives me.”

Genesis 28:10-22

Tree Story #22: Beckoning Path

(Another story from my own journal... To see this piece in process, see my Wanderings blog.)


The weather has changed a lot these past two weeks - rains have come and gone and the creek is higher now. The plants and lower banks look as if they have been flooded lately, no doubts the waters rose during the storm. A couple small brown sparrow-type birds twit and hop among a pile of cut branches across the creek. I go a little farther away from the road, the sound of running water competes with the traffic noise. A crow passes overhead, calling out.

A couple smaller birds chit chit chit in the branches of trees while the beep beep beep of heavy construction calls out as well. Poking up from the dry horizontal straws rise a carpet of fat green short blades - rain here means green. I stop to make a photograph and I hear rustling noises in the tall dead growth next to the path I’m on. I’d love to look farther but my time is up...

Tree Story #140: Remembering

(Adding the story to the original post, this from my own journal... To see this piece in process, see my Wanderings blog.)

A break in the recent storms has given me a great desire to get out. I’ve come to this park, next to where they’re building the new high school and find the high school grounds are taking more of the park than I expected. It’s a small blow to my heart. The “tree along the fence” is gone, as is the old fence; it makes me a little sad but bittersweet that I caught it on film while I could.

The ground is wet but not too soggy, covered in short green grass sprouts and fallen oak leaves. I wander around the park and find a well worn foot path dead-ends at a chain link construction fence. New taller fences, looking appropriate for sports courts, are just beyond.

Many of my favorite trees are still here though - I’m also looking to see how they all weathered the recent sixty-five-mile-per-hour winds, so I’m enjoying my old friends for as long as I can. A small flock of doves roosts in the top of the “woodpecker oak” and a few magpies at the top of another. I photograph one of the old heritage oaks that I had called “oak near Palmerson Drive” and one of the “s curve oaks,” reminding me of my kids playing here when they were little. Lots of tiny little finches flit around branches, twittering and calling out to each other, much like the little children in my memory.