On my relationships with trees and forests

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago.
The next best time is now.
~ Chinese Proverb

The Balsamean; Scribblements from Balsamea contains 34 posts about relationships with trees or forests, out of 128 total posts in the ten years from September 2012 to May 2022.  This is the 128 posts remaining after many were withdrawn from publication.  (There were also many drafted and never published.)  Still, of the published ones NOT removed, 34 of 128 are about trees, forests, and human integration with trees, or immersion in them.  That’s 27% of the total posts.  It is not enough.

Between every two pines is a doorway to a new world.
–John Muir

Starring Nuala’s Maple Tree

(continued from Nuala’s Tree and Concordia post)

Nuala’s Tree is a red maple (Acer rubrum) with four partly intertwining trunks rooted at the edge of a big old pine stump.  I dedicated the tree to Nuala in 2009 or earlier.  The oldest picture I have is from 2009, below.

June 6, 2009. Viewed from south.

September 13, 2019

The brighter background is because of the logging next door. It changes the habitat of Balsamea forever in several ways.  I try not to think about it anymore.

Concordia is a park-like area of about 0.3 acre surrounding Nuala’s Tree.  Almost all of the development of Concordia occurred in August-September 2019.  Before that, there was just some minor maintenance to keep the tree from being overgrown by pines and balsam firs.

I don’t need to give special attention to a tree for it to have personal meaning, nor need I seek personal meaning in a tree.  However, sometimes a tree seeks it in me, like a contemplative interaction probing the soul.  That’s Nuala’s Tree.

Winter Views Part B

No comment from me.  Aren’t you glad?

Click anywhere for carousel mode … better views and full captions.

Five Stump Skypatch on Whitetail Way (turns left from here) and the south terminus of Tettegouche Pass (branches to the right from here)

Frosted Maples and a Big Balsam – at the intersection where Fern Path, Bunchberry Path and Maplegate Path branch off Balsamea Way, at the point where it turns through an S just before becoming the leg of the Turkeyfoot intersection.

A scene from the Garden Lot, which is a wild garden, not a cultivated one.

Snow-Bent Gray Birch on Balsamea Way – Gray birches are known for growing fast, often in multiple-trunk clusters, dying young, and bending under snow load, often staying bent but usually recovering most of the way when the snow melts (or is knocked off by The Balsamean so he doesn’t have to duck under them when they block the trail like this).

More gray birch bending across Balsamea Way.

Gray Birch and Pine weighed down with snow on Balsamea Way

More trees bending across the trail.

Buddy tolerates snow and cold very well.

“Did you say COOKIE?”

Another view of that frosted maple. These things look magnificent in the sunlight and in 3-D when you are standing there in the crisp, fresh, cold air. No photograph ever does justice to the image. The amazing thing is that I get to walk around this place any time I want, and I do it at least three times every day of the year.

Looking east across the Garden Lot. Buddy is waiting for me to get done taking pictures so we can get going on our walk. That thing in front of him is a small rock cairn that may become larger a little at a time over the years.

View east across Garden Lot, Balsamea Way heading east to the right in this picture.

Looking west across the Garden Lot into the beginning of Balsamean Way. The house is in that bright spot down the trail.

Cloud-Swept Sky over Balsamea Headquarters.

A little spruce proving its capacity for snow load.

Turkeyfoot Leg East again.

Turkeyfoot Leg East Entrance. This is the scene at the point where Balsamea Way begins the leg into Turkeyfoot intersection, and Buddy again looking at me to see if I’m coming along or not.

Little opening on Whitetail Way at the intersection with the south end of Bunchberry Path. This is one of our most beautiful Balsam Fir snow scenes, because it gets a lot of south sun exposure across an empty space, making the balsam branches dense all the way to the ground.

Everyone has their shadow side.

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Related Articles — THESE ARE VERY COOL.

• four ways to enjoy nature in winter (rebeccainthewoods.wordpress.com)
• Winter Storm Nemo (kieraworld.wordpress.com)
• Two ways of seeing trees (michellecusolito.blogspot.com)

Winter Wonderland

I shot these pictures today, 12/25/2012.  I have better winter pictures from February 2012, coming soon to a blog scribblement near you, but today I wanted to share pictures taken today.

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This has nothing to do with Christmas, but boy-oh-boy if you are into Christmas, in my part of the world the sky and the snow are performing just as Bing Crosby dreamed for on Christmas.

“Yo! Tannenbaum!” German Tanne (fir) + Baum (tree).

For our nightly walk this most celebrated day of the year, in a brisk thirteen degrees (no problem when walking briskly, unless into a stiff headwind, then you have nose issues, but we were in dense forest cover with NO wind tonight) we had the “perfect storm” of combined crystal-clear sky, moon nearing full, and Jupiter parked a finger’s width from the moon, yet blazing its strong light right through the moon’s white-out drowning of all other stars near it.  I wondered what could be so bright?  Is there a kid being born by autogenesis in a manger somewhere?  Should I pack up some balsam incense and head east?

Since Rudolph’s nose isn’t white, and the light was not moving, I decided to check with StarDate, who told me it was a special presentation of Jupiter.  Just the gods playing around in the sky, as ever.  Orion was swashing his buckle just below the moon, also standing out against that moon-washed sky of few visible stars.

The timing was great, too.  The moon was not far from apex just when we set out for the walk, around 8:10 PM.  That makes the light pierce down through the trees with less shadow and more light hitting the snow.

We have a complete snow cover that developed slowly over a period of three days, totaling about four inches accumulation.  With temperatures staying low, the snow is staying put, and still sticking in billows to not only the balsam fir boughs, but to the upper surfaces of many maple and beech tree branches that don’t get hit by a lot of wind and/or sun.  I love the way it puts a white lining on the branches that are otherwise just sticks all winter (unless glazed in ice).