In utero part 1

Inside the Womb, leaves get bigger and stems longer, reaching out further and further to the light. It must be quite a lush environment in there… a dirt rich with the life of the tree itself. I will have a long wait until the greenery has died a natural, seasonal death and I can really [...]

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All photos, all the time

If you’re interested in seeing a gallery of the main photos from this project, and don’t want to scroll through all the posts, now you can go here: To See A Tree gallery at my web site. [No captions yet - I will add them as I find the time] To see ONLY photos of [...]

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Out on a pole

I’d been wanting to try it for months – sticking my camera at the end of a pole so as to get different angles. I read about it while researching techniques for real estate photography, at a blog (click here to read the entry). I bought the two-ended screw with the help of a great [...]

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That place

As 49-year-olds from small towns go, I am fairly tech-savvy. I do my share of cursing at the computer, but mostly I like new gadgetry and software. And I am in awe of the technology inside my cameras, coming as I do from the days of black and white film. But still, my favorite lens [...]

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At last

While the flowers had been shooting up and blossoming, the beech tree had been taking its time. Pushing out those tight, cigar-shaped buds, gradually pushing the old leaves off the branch. And now at last the show begins.

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Going, going…

Now we are at the very end of the cycle… and the very beginning. All the leaves have dropped from the elderly beech tree that I’ve been following so intently. The branches are covered with buds. But in my yard, 15 miles away, the younger beech trees still hold firmly to their pale dried leaves [...]

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Just a couple babes in the woods

Fallen beech leaf, melding with a newborn toadshade trillium leaf. Violet leaf, peeking out from The Womb. – This time of year, it  seems as though ferns unfurl as you watch.

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The ONE to see

A local hiking group is going to be on the trail where “my” tree is, this Saturday. “How do we know which one is yours?” one of them asked. There are a LOT of beech trees. This one does not have a sign on it saying “AS SEEN IN ‘To See a Tree’!” In fact [...]

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What to make of it

So you live in an industrial city, and you’ve never seen a beech tree, with its pale leaves pressed against the dark wetness of winter. Nonetheless, you have probably touched and consumed beech, in some form. Consider: If there is plywood in your walls or closets, it is probably beechwood. If you have worn a [...]

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The womb

While I have been anxiously awaiting the arrival of my red buckeye sprout, the beech tree along Long Swamp Creek has given birth to a new life of its own. All life gives life, even in decay, even amid what seems to be death. Just look at a stump, or a rocky place…. there is [...]

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