Do you like trees?

Post Reply New Topic

I have always loved trees. Love the forest. I like to draw trees.

I love trees - firstly for their importance in nature, but also because I find their presence really comforting on a personal level. There is something solid and timeless about a really old, gnarled tree, which can help to put my own life into perspective.

I'm especially fond of monkey puzzle trees. One of the streets on the route from my primary school to my grandparents' house used to have a huge monkey puzzle in somebody's front garden (although it has since been cut down, as I believe its roots were starting to interfere with the foundations of the nearby house). I think I associate them with the sense of comfort and freedom that came with being released from school at the end of the day.

I like to have different kinds of fruit-bearing trees on our small farm.

A long time ago, about the year 200 before Darwin, a ruthless robber gang conducted a veritable reign of terror in the eight beatitudes, a region in the Netherlands. Zwarte Kaat, an ugly woman with black hair and a hawk nose, did sowing death and destruction with her gang.
Also kidnapping of new born babies did not escape evil.
Just for clarity, the 8 beatitudes are located in the area around Reusel, Bladel, and the Belgian Postel. Zwarte Kaat and her husband Bruno are getting too hot and flee to Germany with the abducted babies. After eighteen years, the gang returns to the Kempen. They want to take another big blow by robbing the Abbey of Postel. Here, however, they are awaited by Floris ten Vorsel and some soldiers. A fight for life and death is the result. It doesn't end well with Zwarte Kaat, she is beheaded and buried. She is not buried as it was then, her body is dragged up the heath, a hole is dug, and that was it, the end of Black Kate.
But was it the end of this criminal witch? Exactly at the place where Zwarte Kaat is buried is now a very spooky tree. Coincidence does not exist in my way of thinking, it cannot be otherwise that the spirit of Zwarte Kaat has literally and figuratively been a breeding ground for the tree that now stands. Above ground you can see a lush beech, shapes that you won't find anywhere else trees in this region. Even the roots have become aboveground in the course of evolution. This cannot be otherwise that Zwarte Kaat still asserts its presence. What happens under the ground of this tree is even a complete mystery for a brain researcher like DicK Swaab. Although there is no cheerful history behind this tree, well behind it, you better say under this tree, I named this tree in the year 210 after Darwin as the most beautiful tree in the country. This year its even on the nomination for the most beautiful tree in Europe.
I went on the road with Alfred Hitchcock-like visions, with a smartphone in one hand and a bottle of pepper spray in the other, in case I was attacked by the spirit of Zwarte Kaat.
The closer I came to the witch tree, the more ominous feeling came to take possession of my mind. Grippy, scary spirits with a red coat scared me. It was as if the crows, wolves and other vermin were watching Guard for Black Cat. The fact that I can write this now is the living proof that despite heart palpitations, bruises, and some scrapes, I got it alive.

Zwarte Kaat is alive, I know for sure.








Kaa✞.

That tree has got lotsa character. Love it.

There was a big tree near our home here in Maryland USA, that had all kinds of graffiti carved into it. Valentine hearts by lovers. The number "1947" was visible from a distance. And there "V" signs carved into it. Presumably the "V for victory" meme that was en vogue during WWII. So I always planned to walk up close to the tree and photograph all of the stuff carved into it- and figure out how far back in time that graffiti goes. But then they built some road and cut it down before I ever did that. Damned.

Florida has some odd looking trees. Odd to us who come from the temperate zone, including banyan trees (aka "strangler figs"). These are the trees that put down roots from little trunks coming down from their branches. Many kinds -both native Caribbean banyan trees, and species imported from tropical Asia. Near the science museum in Miami there is a huge one that covers a whole football field sized area. Photographed that, but the pic didn't come out. Damned.

@ Snoopy Dog.
I love your authentic behaviour.
Very clever that you follow your own road.
Be yourself dont matter what they say ( Sting )

Why, yes. Indeed I do.

My favorite kinds of trees are Maple, Pine, and Weeping Willow.

One does not simply live in the Deep South without liking live oaks, longleaf pines, and magnolias!

The Scream, Edvard Munch


Bert (van Ernie, Sesamstraat)


Dangerous Ninja.


Hagar (from Wickie the Viking)


Out of breath


Trol.


Adorable Wuppie

Yes, I think they are great and there are some very beautiful ones out there.

Absolutely!

Today its 12 februari 211~N~D, its Darwin day
The tree of life from the genius from Shrewsbury i like.

Love trees of all shapes and sizes. Love to wander among them in our own country and also in spirit with Frodo's friends Merry and Pippin in the Forest of Fangorn and other places where the forests are pristine and unspoiled.

They give me a sense of peace and tranquillity.