Ironwoods and trees

I don't know of many folks here in my area that love the Ironwood, in some places they are considered a pesky tree. Of course, I find it interesting in shape and form. The tree is also known as:

Hop-Hornbeam
Ostrya Virginia

This tree is not to be confused with the other Ironwood. Also called Musclewood or American Hornbeam.  Both trees live in the surrounding forests.

Here are the leaves in the winter. This is called marcescent leaves. Leaves that stay on the tree and don't fall off in the fall. Oak trees do the same things. The new buds push off the leaves in the spring. Some think that this provides better mulch for the tree. 

All I know, is that these trees are fun to look at in the winter. They are generally understory trees and are pretty abundant in forests that have been commercially logged.

The trees that are on the edge of the woods have their leaves torn off by wicked winter winds. In the winter you can see the male catkins that are produced in the summer. In the spring, the catkins spore and fertilize the female parts. 

I'm don't totally understand the whole process as this is all fairly new to me. 

If you are interested in seeing the photos and explanation, this is a good site to read:
Hop Hornbeam-Outdoor Learning.

It has taken me a few years and a new neighbor whose job is helping people with managing their forests in our county. He is a wealth of knowledge.

This spring I'll try and catch the catkins from the slippery elms, the boxelders, maples, oaks, birch, and the hop hornbeam. I'm pretty curious about how these trees 'do their' thing.

I've been working on this sort of ID project since 2010 with so many starts and stops and distractions along the way.

I can at least identify a few more trees now than in 2010.

This curlicue below is from a wild grape vine. This is part of the same vine that I made almost two whole batches of grape jelly. The second batch had to be mixed with wild apple juice I picked from the meadow trees.

I'm going to be sidetracked yet again by some nice weather. That means I'll go looking at KVR I hope to see if I can find some migrating birds in the ponds or perhaps some pussywillows.

Meanwhile, there is a NEW tougher Duckie in town!

 

Saturday was a Creative Day

Rain, Rain, Rain. Mud. Heavy Rain. Saturday was not a day to be out and about. I'd gotten soaked doing the morning chores.

I resigned myself to getting things done around the house. I cleaned the floors and picked up things I'd just dropped in places. Supper was leftover Chili so I didn't have to work on that.

I finally decided to open up a file and work on my Tree Photobook. 

I popped on a pair of headphones and tuned Pandora into my favorite mix of music to drown out Swamp People, old Football Games, and other noises and 

got

into 

the 

Zone.

When I sat down to write, I had no idea what to do. I'd tried this several times and closed the laptop without inspiration. 

Perhaps the rain and dreary day would inspire me. 

For a bit I stared at the blank page in front of me.

B L A N K

I used the title from Mary Oliver's Poem: When I am Among Trees to jump start my ideas.

Interestingly enough, I did not include any artistic off the wall renderings of the photos I took of the trees. Most were black and white winter photos of the shapes and branches.

I only worked with photos from January through Spring. Most of the photographs I chose were ones I took in the winter months.

Then it hit me.

I was happy in the trees.

The trees fascinated me.

I like to be in the woods alone because no one sees me admire the trees and lean up against them as if they are my best friends. No one sees me put my arms around a sapling and reach up to touch their bark and admire their coat of moss.

Oh and...

Trees don't talk back to you...

While hiking I often stop dead in my tracks to look up and just

look.

I am always fascinated by the shapes made by the tree's growth.

In the summer these shapes are mostly hidden.

In the winter? They are laid bare.

I'd made a colorful and autumn like cover for the book and then decided that it would not work. Many photos of winter trees are stark and all about shape not necessarily color.

I had some color photos, but...

I think for consistency I will make all of the photos black and white? 

Well, perhaps. But there will be a couple that absolutely need to be in color.

I guess, in the end, it doesn't matter too much. I am just doing this for myself.

Sample photos:

The alternate cover?

Something like this:

or.....
this one.

It looks less foreboding and dark. Though I do like the starkness of black and white.

This is what I do for my Fall Fun. I used to write a story each fall when I had Mr. Morris in my life. I wrote for the Grand kids. They loved getting books of Morris's Toy Adventures. It was silly but fun.

It was time to do another Nature themed photo book.

Now to proof read it and edit.

I do use Blurb to do these projects as I've always had a great product from them. 

Now that I have just about finished this. I will complete my Trail Challenge and begin sorting for my next adventure story.

Thanks to Aurora for an incredible photo that I will use 

in..

Trails With Charlie/ A year's worth of Hiking with a tiny dog.

Photo Credit: Aurora Williamson

 

When I am among Trees

I know I want to create a photo book of some of the artistic images of trees that I've done this past year. 

I've gathered most of the shots and artistic renderings I've made by different methods and have been getting ready to put them together.

I had no coherent plan in mind, but like most things. Generally the mood of creativity has to smack me upside the head [mentally, that is]. 

I was still conflicted. Is it appropriate to put nice plain photos and mix in different methods of editing? I am stymied.

I was also stuck because I had nothing I wanted to put on the cover of the book.

I'd tried a few different shots and artistic designs with no luck.

I wasn't even thinking about the project when I took a photo of one of my favorite trees and ran it through Wombo Art AI and then Deep Dream AI. I was simply curious to see what would happen if I used AI to mix up two forest shots.

I merged the photos in ON1 [Photoshop is too pricey for me] and messed around.

Little did I know that this was exactly what I'd been searching for.

It looks like some sort of painting that I could imagine walking through.

I even tested it out with a title.

I was inspired by the piece of artwork enough to think about working on the project again.

When I am Among Trees is a poem by my favorite poet, Mary Oliver.

She says what I feel in one small beautiful poem.

I think now that I have this in mind, I can work on the rest of the book.
My executive decision is this. I'll mix and match photos with some of my art. After all, it isn't a 'book' per se that is going out on the NY Best Seller list. 
It will be a self published book for me to pick up and browse through and enjoy what I'd done.

We will see how the project progresses.

Some photos will be artsy and some not so artsy.
I just wanted to collect them in one place to enjoy them.

After all, trees are constantly on my mind.

When I Am Among the Trees

When I am among the trees,

especially the willows and the honey locust,

equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,

they give off such hints of gladness.

I would almost say that they save me, and daily.

I am so distant from the hope of myself,

in which I have goodness, and discernment,

and never hurry through the world

but walk slowly, and bow often.

Around me the trees stir in their leaves

and call out, “Stay awhile.”

The light flows from their branches.

And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,

“and you too have come

into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled with light, and to shine.” Mary Oliver

Saturday Wonderday!

A good day starts with a good walk if I can manage it. Sometimes the other half gets up too early and needs his coffee made and can get grumpy if it isn't taken care of. [I am smiling as I write this, because I know that I can get up at 4:30 now and enjoy quiet time for a while!]

I am trying to keep track of the trees alongside the gravel road to our house. The one below is a Grey Dogwood ~ I believe.

This year I am trying to keep track of birds...trees... and of course fungi. It is a means of keeping myself occupied and my mind stimulated.

My favorite Box Elder

Red Oak I believe!

Another one? Oak.

I think...not sure... Hazel nuts? I will have to wait for the tree to leaf out a bit more or some sort of elm??
Speckled Alder??? 
Gosh I don't know!

I found more amazing trees on the morning walk then headed to town and picked up Rhubarb Pie and Cherry Pie from the Farmer's Market and some fresh leaf lettuce. I've decided to just grow sweet corn in the garden this year.
When I can purchase fresh produce each week all summer for our needs and for freezing, it doesn't make sense to spend endless hours in a vegetable garden.

For example, the cost of the beautiful lettuce I got? $2.50, I can't grow it for that! 

MMMM. It gives me more time to play with flowers which I LOVE!

I went out just before lunch and found Morels with Charlie!

Charlie didn't feel so good, so I took him home. As I cut through a deer trail looking at the ground, I saw this...

Fawns do not have a scent when first born. They lay so still as to be invisible! I moved away with Charlie and we headed home.

BUT! Not before we heard a commotion in the trees about 40 feet away. An owl was having it out with some red wing black birds and crows.

I thought to myself...Dang where is Aurora with that lens of hers? I know she would have loved watching this owl watch us. [Taken with my pocket camera and cropped so you can see the owl.]

We had Morels with our steak and watched several squalls come through and ended the day with a rainbow. [A bit over the top with the edit, but the clouds were so amazing and I wanted to catch their strangeness as it cut through the rainbow.]

Snow Day

 

Charlie doesn't need YakTraks or ice cleats obviously. Look at those feet! We decided to go for a nice morning walk to the ridge and down through the woods and around the neighbor's meadow.

The snow in the area is compacted and very rough on the deer trails. I had to walk carefully, but Bigfoot darted all around the place like a wild man. He had chased two squirrels and was on a roll.

The road on the ridge was covered in a layer of snow and under that was ice. This is one of those times where the ice wasn't thick enough to bury the gravel underneath so traction wasn't too bad. The mist was still coming down and icing all east facing branches.

I had trees on my mind. The light was dull and pretty gloomy but I enjoy days like this for different types of photography.

You've seen this boxelder before and for whatever reason, I stop often in the winter and summer to photograph it. The kid in me wants to make a fort here.

Funny how you can take the same route over and over and see different things. I never saw the shape of this particular tree before. The light and the misty atmosphere stopped me in my tracks. 

Here is the full tree, and below that is a cropped version of what I really found fascinating.

Cropped version

Everything seems to be moving to the right in this shot. Strange right?

Soon enough Spring will arrive and the trees will have leaves which will hide their incredible features.

After lunch we had a grand time watching the birds at the feeder. I tried to hone in a skill of 'catching' a bird in flight while leaving a branch.

I'll save that for another day.

Crazy on Trees

Twisted Sister Tree.
she dances to her

own desires...

I was walking along the run off ditch that was created many years ago on the west side of our place. The farm west of us and our place used to be one.

At some point in time, someone dug a 'ditch' for water to run from off the hillsides. That way it didn't wash out portions of the pasture. Neat twisted and odd looking boxelders stand on each side of the ditch as if they were watching over it.

I was looking to see if I could find the same exact spot I'd taken a photo of last March on a spooky foggy day. 

I have no idea why, except I thought it would be fun to tromp through the snow early in the morning and see if I could find where that exact spot was. 

I did find the spot and in the bright snow and early sunlight, it was rather unimpressive.

Instead I looked around and found another interesting tree.

I am assuming that this tree is what is we locals call a scrub apple tree. Thorny and nasty, the trunks are generally gnarled and bizarre. Somehow they survive and blossom each spring.

Embracing One's

inner elf

is harmonious

The Ditch Guardian
wise, old,

gnarled, yet still

alive.

The trail in the middle of the photo runs alongside the ditch and all year there is a worn trail from each animal that inhabits these woods. The cattle in the summer and everything else in the winter. I'm fairly sure that the Guardian Tree is a boxelder also. The dead parts hang over the trail, the live parts twist and grow to the west.

I wonder, if this tree could talk, what would it tell me about the floods it has seen, the animals it has observed, and does it laugh at the humans who try to control nature's whims?

Be Like A Tree

Stay grounded and true

to yourself...

This is the same tree from last year! Just seen on a foggy morning. It still looks like it is dancing to me. ~~~ The Twisted Sister

My all time favorite tree.

Comfort tree

rest under my

branches or

climb them...

and find a 

secret place...

Another view of this tree 

I think I'm going to spend some more time looking just for interesting tree shapes before spring arrives and changes everything.

Hunting shadows and

light...

Winter solitude-
in a world of one color
the sound of wind
~Basho

I've been on a black and white stark patterns 'kick' lately.

I recently read an article where one pro photographer said one needed to practice just one genre of photography to get very good at it. 
I agree with him.

Then I read another article that said Do What Inspires You. Okay!

Cold.

Snow.

Winter.

Stark.

White.

I've been inspired by shadows and light play.

And I was inspired by the incredible snow and clear blue skies. 

Trees that huddle in

 the hollow of a soybean field.

The Sumac that stands 

against the western winds.

Here is the tree line that still hides parts of a barbed

wire fence that once separated two farms.

There is pleasure in knowing where to walk to see these favorite places of mine on the ridge. In the other seasons none of these trees make such an amazing statement.

Yet in winter, they are must see spots for me.

I can't help myself.

I love how the winds whisper 

cold air past me 

and it makes snow designs

under my feet...

I feel

free...

~~~

Comparisons trees & brush

 Bittersweet May 1st in blossom

Bittersweet August 20th

Bittersweet September 20th

Bittersweet October 22nd

This was one plant I was pretty sure of. I was able to photograph it from spring to fall.

Properly dried Bittersweet is often sought after by the old timers as a Fall and Thanksgiving decoration in vases or on wreaths. Who can blame them? They are so bright and cheerful.

Here is the mystery bush that turned out to be a Hazelnut.

These are being sought after also as a alternative crop. Hazelnut coffee? The wildlife and humans both adore the nut. See? I will have to pay attention next year!

Hazelnut bush September 9th

Hazelnut bush September 24th

Hazelnut bush October 9th

Hazelnut bush October 22nd

Then there is the Dogwood. I didn't even know we had dogwood around until after I'd visited my son and he'd shown me some of his beautiful varieties in his yard. I recall looking at the blossoms in the early spring along side our road.

Dogwood Blossoms May 1st

August 20th 

October 22

Oak Tree May 1st

October 22

Another oak variety with rounded edges on the leaves.
White oak.

I think that is about it for today. I'm actually haveing some fun with trying my best to learn more about tree and how to ID them. This has evaded me most of my life.

However this summer while at my son's place, we spent quite a bit of time looking identifying trees around his home. For whatever reason, I found that really interesting.

I always start out with these exact good intentions every spring [to follow a plant from spring to fall] ... and usually forget about it. I didn't do too badly this year.

I'm looking forward to some winter ID'ing and more!

I need to get back to where I saw those Witch Hazels at KVR! That will be my goal next week!