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i took the cloth measuring tape there.   so close to 12 ft in circumference,  we'll call it twelve feet.   Once it was a seed,  just one,  from one of the pineapple sized pine cones.  Gray Pine,  Foothill pine. Pinus Sabiniana.    They tower over Everything and sway with Wind,  Shushing the day with their gentle Whisper.   When you google things,  different sites pop up.  Tonight,  a new one in which someone asked an 80 year old logger why they grow how they do…slanted,  drifting sideways,  leaning.  "Because they like to"  he said.  Here,  on this Hill,  they are at least 80 ft tall.  Many.  They live among the Live Oak.  in some kind of community that i don't understand yet.   This one is where my second rest stop is.  

 

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20 responses to “old”

  1. Michelle Slater Avatar
    Michelle Slater

    Beautiful descriptive words and I love your shadow shot. There’s an old willow uptown around 106th street off Fifth Avenue in Central Park that takes three people holding hands to hold. It’s been topped from storms and so is not it’s original height, but it strikes me with awe. I haven’t been yet this year. Maybe over the weekend.

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  2. Acey Avatar
    Acey

    the second pic is everything. The light and shadows! Bay Laurel?

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  3. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    love learning about the subtle associations between the plants on The Hill and the adaptations they make with the spirits of place

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  4. Liz A Avatar
    Liz A

    I’m trying to imagine a pineapple-sized pinecone falling out of an 80 foot high tree … look out below!
    and old … I proudly call my 63-year-old self “old” … I don’t consider it pejorative because I’m happy I’ve made it this far … then I think, the trees would take a century or two to laugh at my pride-full self … what do I really know of “old” ?

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  5. Deb Avatar
    Deb

    Amazing the persistence of this life. Lives, really. I’ve been reading about how trees are rarely solitary and have community. I imagine these trees have already been through the fire – probably more than once, and yet, here they are.
    What is the degree of angle to the ground they lean in? I’m sure there’s purpose in every degree. Nature doesn’t operate on likes or dislikes. It’s survive and persist, or die.

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  6. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    The sacredness of this venerable pine; to see your shadow partly on her trunk, partly on the ground sends goosebumps; it is as if you await her in homage for SHE dances to a melody as old as time, swaying in spirit to what rises from her roots skyward and you are windthread, so aware of the elements; holding connection with all you are coming to know on your Hill.

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  7. Patty Avatar
    Patty

    Just finished reading The Overstory. Trees are more amazing than
    I suspected. I sit out with the pup at night and watch the stars with
    my tree friends. In the first photo your tree seems to look back at
    you thru horse like eyes.

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  8. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    they are kin

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  9. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    no and i can’t think of the name…i will

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  10. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i so much want to know Them

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  11. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    in comparison…nothing. They smile on us, i think.
    and yes. you can hear them coming, clattering through
    the branches then the THUD.

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  12. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i don’t know with them…there does not seem to be
    any Necessity for the choice….up is as easy as sideways?
    still trying to understand. I’ll take more pics

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  13. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Acey says Skywalkers…
    these, for sure

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  14. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i think we gaze upon eachother
    hearing a lot about that book

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  15. Acey Avatar
    Acey

    about a third of the way through this book. Reading each word with great enjoyment and admiration as it’s absolutely mesmerizing – both the writing caliber and how flawlessly so many threads of human and tree lives/reality are woven together.

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  16. Patty Avatar
    Patty

    When I’d almost finished the book I realized the pace
    of the writing was tree pace, not human. This impressed
    on me how long and slow a tree’s life is compared to ours.

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  17. Patty Avatar
    Patty

    You pay attention to trees and they share what they know
    without spoken words. This makes you wise.

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  18. Liz A Avatar
    Liz A

    after reading Overstory I read Barry Lopez’s new book Horizon … they pair well

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  19. dee Avatar
    dee

    The mysterious and powerful communications between trees is a central idea in “The Overstory.” You are living a chapter of that book. Parts would be like reading your own thoughts. This year is a banner acorn year here outside of Boston. After reading The Overstory, I think about how the oaks all across the city talked to each other. Decided about this. I don’t think it’s an aberration due to climate change, but who knows. Those factors are inescapable.

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  20. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i think, or feel, think/feel feel/sense that the trees and plants as the emissaries and voices and visuals of Earth, Gaia are making an enormous effort to SPEAK
    in whatever way homosapiens might be able to understand, hear, feel
    Acorns have been FOOD for many first peoples. Acorns
    are a complete protein.
    There were three trees in my early life that were my family. Oak, Weeping Willow, wild apple. I think about them today, the specific ones i grew up with and IN. I grew up IN them, UP in Them. Held by them.

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