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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In one year

This photo shows the exact spot where new growth started on a young tree: See those ridges that travel the circumference of the branch? And then how the bark is clean and smooth after that? That’s where the new year started, at least in branch terms. A beech tree grows an average of a foot [...]

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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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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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The seedling knows

Is the soil barren? No. All around the place where I planted the red buckeye seed, green of other kinds is spreading. Violets, grasses, unidentified plants. Did the seed dissolve, rotted? No. I dug my fingers into the soil twice, trying to find it. But it is still there, solidly under the ground, with the [...]

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One.

Drop.

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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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Replanting the Appalachians

By ROGER ALFORD The Associated Press Friday, March 27, 2009; 4:08 AM BLACKEY, Ky. — Sam Adams laid his tools aside and gently pushed fresh dirt around an oak sapling he hopes one day will be part of a hardwood forest high above this Appalachian community. He was one of about 70 people gathered in [...]

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