tree story #160

the last from the hidden archive - but there are always more to come -
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tree story #159

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story told for #97: still singing

10 a.m. sunny, warm & clear. Songbirds singing, kids playing, voices echo in the quiet hills. No sign of life on the vines yet, grass & other little plants green up the ground. I wander around a bit and see about a half dozen mule deer carefully work their way along the west edge of the vineyards in the bordering oak woods where the light will be better later...

6 p.m. Light clouds coming in - little less intense light than last evening - cooling just a little, songbirds are still singing. Clouds shift, the earth moves around the sun, the light shifts and changes. Vineyard to the southwest, framed by trees and a stone wall.

Judith Monroe, Wanderings journal

tree story #158

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tree story #157: peace

from the archives, for the new upcoming gallery show - story told with #156 -

Peace

“I will make a covenant of peace with my people and drive away the dangerous animals from the land. Then they will be able to camp safely in the wildest places and sleep in the woods without fear. I will bless my people and their homes around my holy hill. And in the proper season I will send the showers they need. There will be showers of blessing. The orchards and fields of my people will yield bumper crops, and everyone will live in safety. When I have broken their chains of slavery and rescued them from those who enslaved them, then they will know that I am the Lord. They will no longer be prey for other nations, and wild animals will no longer devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will frighten them.

“And I will make their land famous for its crops, so my people will never again suffer from famines or the insults of foreign nations. In this way, they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them. And they will know that they, the people of Israel, are my people, says the Sovereign Lord. You are my flock, the sheep of my pasture. You are my people, and I am your God. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

Ezekiel 34: 25-31

tree story #156: peace

from the archives, for the new upcoming gallery show - story told with #157 -

Peace

“I will make a covenant of peace with my people and drive away the dangerous animals from the land. Then they will be able to camp safely in the wildest places and sleep in the woods without fear. I will bless my people and their homes around my holy hill. And in the proper season I will send the showers they need. There will be showers of blessing. The orchards and fields of my people will yield bumper crops, and everyone will live in safety. When I have broken their chains of slavery and rescued them from those who enslaved them, then they will know that I am the Lord. They will no longer be prey for other nations, and wild animals will no longer devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will frighten them.

“And I will make their land famous for its crops, so my people will never again suffer from famines or the insults of foreign nations. In this way, they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them. And they will know that they, the people of Israel, are my people, says the Sovereign Lord. You are my flock, the sheep of my pasture. You are my people, and I am your God. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken!”

Ezekiel 34: 25-31

tree story #155

apparently I had a few images archived but never brought out, so they'll trickle out over the next few days...

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tree story #162: prosperity

(From my archives, with a story for the upcoming gallery show...)

(With tree story #161...)

Prosper

My ears are filled with the sounds of promise:
"Good people will prosper like palm trees,
Grow tall like Lebanon cedars;
transplanted to God's courtyard,
They'll grow tall in the presence of God,
lithe and green, virile still in old age."

Such witnesses to upright God!
My Mountain, my huge, holy Mountain!

Psalm 92: 11-15

tree story #161: prosperity

(From my archives, with a story for the upcoming gallery show...)

(With tree story #162...)

Prosper

My ears are filled with the sounds of promise:
"Good people will prosper like palm trees,
Grow tall like Lebanon cedars;
transplanted to God's courtyard,
They'll grow tall in the presence of God,
lithe and green, virile still in old age."

Such witnesses to upright God!
My Mountain, my huge, holy Mountain!

Psalm 92: 11-15

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.

tree story #154

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tree story #153

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tree story #152

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tree story #151

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tree story #150

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tree story #149

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tree story #148

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