Memory of Trees: Hope Has a Place / Ice Dreams

Under the heavens, we journey far
On roads of life, we're the wanderers
So let love rise, so let love depart
Let hope have a place in the lover's heart
Hope has a place in a lover's heart

What a difference a week makes.

One week ago, our biggest tree, a red oak, fell through our backyard and onto our shed. It stood 105+ feet tall and was more than 85 inches in circumference, which means it was likely 200+ years old and weighed as much as 50 to 100 tons.

We were under a tornado watch at the time. The tree was toppled in mere seconds by terrible winds that accompanied the big 3 p.m. storm, as I watched in horror from our master bedroom window. We later learned that locally there were straight line winds and microbursts; I bet one of those took our tree.

Tuesday morning, the tree guys came and they removed the tree from the shed and chipped that part; they also cut the tree into large sections. On Sunday, friends came and chainsawed and split the rest. 

That noise you might have heard was the sound of chainsaws and a splitter. It was basically a military operation: we had several marines and one army guy show up. My husband's dad was WW II navy. So all that was missing was a rep from the air force, we think!

They did a great job! They loaded up the bulk of the wood and took it. We left a fair portion of the trunk for wildlife habitat, and I got a couple of nice slices of the tree for myself, to remember it by. There's one more story about the wood, but I think I'll save that till tomorrow.

It was also a very busy day for the neighbor kitty, LGK. He showed up around dawn and spent the whole day, despite the ongoing loud noises. He rolled in the morning sun to greet me and welcome me to my own front porch.

He provided parking assistance to fit those big trucks in our driveway. In the end, LGK surveyed the work that was done and rolled in the grass just because it smelled so good there. Maybe it was the scent of sawdust.

Someone who was at the house on this day asked if she could pet our cat. My husband said, "He's not our cat." She petted him, and he almost nipped her. ("A faux nip," my husband said.) It reminded me of that "He's not my dog" line from the Pink Panther movie. :-)

But before all of that, I went out into the yard, determined to do one last thing to celebrate my tree before it went. It had been about 25 degrees here overnight, and I thought I might fit in yet one more set of frozen bubbles. My purpose was to take a place of disaster and transform it - and reclaim it - into a place of joy.

Well, it was 30 degrees when I went out, so my bubbles weren't really freezing up, but here is a photo above, in which I blew bubbles on the big tree's trunk, with our (yellow) house and shed, and my hands and my camera reflected in the bubble. Isn't almost every photo a self-portrait, in one way or another?

My husband was in charge of keeping an eye on all of the people at our house for the day, and so around lunchtime, I left him and the house and the people and the noise and I went over to the Scotia Barrens to check for fresh ice.

Well, pond 1 (my fave!) and pond 2 were clear, but there is an itty bitty pond in between them that is always in shadow. It sits in the shade of hemlock trees, and yes, there was gorgeous fresh ice EVERYWHERE. Cold sinks, frost pockets, and microclimates are yet another one of the Barrens' magical mysteries, or as I like to say, its seven wonders.

I took nearly 200 photos of the ice. It was wondrous. Once I was back home, I made them into ice abstracts (typically increasing darkness, definition, and saturation) and you may see one of them in the extras. I call it Ice Dreams.

I've got two photos so here are two songs. First, for my bubble above that is in celebration and memory of our great tree, I've got a song from Enya's album, The Memory of Trees. I wanted something hopeful, as I find that hope is what lifts you up and sustains you through some of the harder things in life. So the song I picked is Enya's Hope Has a Place. You may see one of its verses above.

On Saturday night, the backroom feature at our house was U2's Rattle and Hum, one of the best concert films of all time. We were rocking and rolling and I was singing along and shouting even at midnight. It was like holy revival time, 80s style. :-) So my second song is U2 with the Harlem gospel choir, with one of the very best tunes from that movie: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. 

The next day, while searching for more U2 on YouTube (or is that U2Tube?), I came across this gem, in which Chris Martin (Coldplay) and Bruce Springsteen (The Boss) fill in for Bono back in 2014, in a performance that occurred one day after Bono's bad bicycle accident. I'm tossing it in as a bonus song. Nobody can really replace Bono but it's fun to watch them try! Enjoy!

As always, here is a link to my frozen bubble making tips.