Posted in Birds, Journeys, Nature, Quote for the Day, tagged Birds, pat bean, trees on June 20, 2013| 2 Comments »
“In nature, nothing is perfect and everything is perfect. Trees can be contorted, bent in weird ways, and they’re still beautiful.” — Alice Walker
Only a Tree
Shaped by wind coming off the Gulf of Mexico. — Photo by Pat Bean
The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.
Bean’s Pat: The Daily Echo http://tinyurl.com/myb66tl Only a bird … and only a great blog.
Posted in Books, Journeys, Nature, tagged anne bishop, books, fantasy, mary stewart, pat bean, trees on May 3, 2013| 7 Comments »
The woods play a big role in the Tir Alainn series by Anne Bishop, so I thought I would illustrate my blog with one of my favorite tree photos. — Photo by Pat Bean
Across the bridge and into the woods, just like in “Shadows and Light.” — Photo by Pat Bean
“The gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive knowledge.” – Albert Einstein
I Kept Turning Pages
I’m a bit groggy today. It could be because I stayed up way too early – like until around 3 a.m. – to finish reading Anne Bishop’s “Shadows and Light,” the second in her Tir Alainn trilogy.
I only discovered Anne last month when I was browsing the science fiction and fantasy section of the local library. I’m always looking for good fantasy books and new authors. And after I had read the first in this series, “The Pillars of the World,” I was hooked on Anne.
The main characters are the Fey and Witches – and strong women. What’s so fun about the creativity allowed in fantasy writing is that Anne’s characterization of Witches and the Fey are quite different from how other authors portray them.
It reminds me of the many different King Arthur versions floating around out there. My all time favorite is Mary Stewart’s Merlin series that begins with “The Crystal Cave,” published in 1970. I was a big fan of Mary long before that, hooked on her historical fiction, with mystery thrown into the mix.” I think I read just about everything Mary ever wrote, including “Nine Coaches Waiting, “My Brother Michael” and Moonspinners.
Just thinking about Mary makes me want to go and revisit some of her work, particularly the Merlin books. But then there’s also my desire to read Anne’s third book in the Tir Alainn trilogy, “The House of Gaian,” – and her other books as well. I find that if I like one book by an author, I usually like their almost everything they write.
I wonder how much sleep I really need?
The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.
Bean’s Pat: Life’s Total Immersion http://tinyurl.com/c23slef This blogger better expressed some of my own thoughts about why I like fantasy.
Posted in Journeys, Lakes, Nature, Uncategorized, Weekly Photo Challenge, tagged John Muir, kisses, pat bean, trees, weekly photo challenge on February 16, 2013| 8 Comments »
“A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves. ” ~John Muir
Tree Partnerships
During the three summers I spent at Lake Walcott, I never got tired of looking at the park’s many trees. My favorites were the willows, Russian olives and the cottonwoods. The cottonwoods, thanks to Snake River irrigation water, were huge, the willows graceful and the frosty color of the Russian olives, which also grew larger than any I had seen elsewhere, gave the park’s greenness a vibrant texture.
Arms entwined in a naked embrace. Belly-laughing now. How about you? — Photo by Pat Bean
What amazed me was how many of them seemed to have grown up in pairs.
And like John Muir, I saw the trees in their many moods: From their naked branches, whose forms sometimes made me think of an Escher painting, to their passionate dance when a wind storm blew across the park, to their quiet summer verdancy when they issued an invitation for me to sit beneath them and partake of their shaded coolness.
And when I saw this week’s photo theme, the trees were the first thing that popped into my mind. if trees could make love, would their foreplay begin with kissing leaves? What do you think?
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Birds, Favorite Places, Lakes, Nature, Travel, Writing, tagged great egret, illinois backroads, lincoln trail state park, pat bean, postaday, trees on October 10, 2012| 8 Comments »
“The everyday kindness of the back roads more than makes up for the acts of greed in the headlines … It does no harm just once in a while to acknowledge that the whole country isn’t in flames, that there are people in the country besides politicians, entertainers, and criminals.” – Charles Kuralt
A lone great egret on Lincoln Trail Lake — Photo by Pat Bean
Adventures with Pepper: Day 18-19
I got it all figured out on the map, just exactly the best way to get to Lincoln’s Tomb in Springfield. But in the end, I decided I’d rather spend my day traveling down Illinois’ backroads.
A young deer in the sunlight while the mom stays more hidden in the shadows. The park was full of deer. A staff worker said they had fawned late this year. — Photo by Pat Bean
So, with a cheat sheet of right and left turns to compensate for my lack of directional sense, I set out to drive from Chatham to Lincoln Trail State Park.
You guessed it. I got turned around numerous times. It seems my map and reality were two different things. Too often sign markers were missing, and once even turned around the wrong way.
But it was a beautiful drive and I eventually found my way over numerous state and county roads to Lincoln Trail State Park, which was awesome.
I camped on a high lookout point with stairs leading down to the small lake that was painted by the colors of fall.
I had breakfast at the park’s marina restaurant before I left. The food was ho-hum, but the view was magnificent. — Photo by Pat Bean — Photo by Pat Bean
The large park is just west of the 1,000-mile Lincoln Heritage Trail, which marks Lincoln’s passage from Kentucky, through Indiana to Illinois.Heavily forested, the park is home to beech, oak, maple, hickory, sweet gum and sassafras trees. among many others. The air was clean and fresh, the days warm and sunny, and the nights cold and crisp, just perfect for snuggling beneath the covers with my canine traveling companion Pepper, and having pleasant dreams.
Book Report: Travels with Maggie is now at 55,212 words. Not much time to write with traveling and other commitments, but I’m trying to at least keep it moving forward every day.
The Wondering Wanderer’s blog pick of the day.
Bean’s Pat: Focus on the Eyes http://tinyurl.com/8rd5zjr Good advice for picture taking. I never thought of this very helpful hint. Perhaps other amateur photographers haven’t either.
Posted in Adventures With Pepper, Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Journeys, Nature, Travel, tagged agate bridge, arizona, pat bean, petrified forest, postaday, state fossil, trees on May 30, 2012| 5 Comments »
“It is not so much for its beauty that the forest makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air, that emanation from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Agate Bridge: Floodwaters washed away softer sandstone to allow this harder 110-foot long petrified log to form a bridge. Humans, fascinated with the bridge, added supports, something National Park staff would not do today, preferring to leave things in a more natural state. This log bridge, however, was one of the things that prompted the creations of Petrified Forest Nation Park in 1906. — Photo by Pat Bean
Trees Turned to Stone
Stone logs testify to the ancient forest that once thrived here. — Photo by Pat Bean
Araucarioxylon arizonicum. I can’t pronounce it either. But I did learn that it was one of the most common trees found in a 225 million year old forest that once thrived in what is now Arizona.
These trees are extinct, but more than their memory lives on. The great conifers among them that were quickly buried by mud, silt and volcanic ash in ancient days, then at some point were exposed to silica-laden water, live on, their organic tissues transformed into quartz.
That, at least, ‘s the abbreviated version of the science behind the stone trees. If you want more details, you’ll have to do your own research. It could be fun.
I tried to picture the forest as it once was, with dinosaurs roaming through it, as I stood in front of “Old Faithful.”
Old Faithful: The largest 225 million year old tree trunk in the park. — Photo by Pat Bean
That’s the name of the largest Araucarioxylon arizonicum tree trunk on exhibit along a short hike behind the Rainbow Forest Museum near the south entrance to the park.
Petrified tree remains were once so plentiful, and not just in the Petrified Forest National Park where it’s illegal to remove then, that you can find homes and cafes and other structures in which they were used as building material.
Araucarioxylon arizonicum is also the Arizona’s state fossil.
Hmmm. I wonder if I can learn to speak the name of the tree as easily as I learned to say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
Bean’s Pat: Love Thy Bike http://tinyurlcom/7n85fbh Take an armchair bike ride along the California Coast.
*This recognition is merely this wandering/wondering old broad’s way of bringing attention to a blog I enjoyed – and thought perhaps my readers might, too. The Pat on the back is presented with no strings attached. May 30, patbean.wordpress.com
Posted in Lakes, Nature, Travel, tagged John Muir, Lake Walcott, live oaks, pat bean, postaday, trees, weeklyphotochallenge, willows on April 16, 2012| 7 Comments »
“I never saw a discontented tree. They grip the ground as though they liked it, and though fast rooted they travel about as far as we do. They go wandering forth in all directions with every wind, going and coming like ourselves, traveling with us around the sun two million miles a day, and through space heaven knows how fast and far!” ~John Muir
Two Trees
I think of these two live oak trees that grow in a park on the Texas Gulf Coast as two old companions who grew up together and whose roots are now entwined like a rare couple who has been able to weather the hard times and age gracefully together. I suspect they are now so joined that they can not survive without each other. -- Photo by Pat Bean
And is this one tree or two?
And this great willow, that sits beside Lake Walcott in Idaho, reminds me of a couple who married young and then split asunder so that they appear as two trees. -- Photo by Pat Bean
Posted in Favorite Hikes, Favorite Places, Nature, Travel, tagged kim taplin, lost maples, pat bean, postaday2011, things to do in Texas, trees on January 11, 2012| 7 Comments »
“Because they are primeval, because they outlive us, because they are fixed, trees seem to emanate a sense of permanence. And though rooted in earth, they seem to touch the sky. For these reasons it is natural to feel we might learn wisdom from them, to haunt about them with the idea that if we could only read their silent riddle rightly we should learn some secret vital our own lives …” – Kim Taplin, “Tongues in Trees,” 1989
I walked this path in the Lost Maples State Natural Area in search of a golden-cheeked warbler and was rewarded with peace and beauty that enriched my thoughts. -- Photo by Pat Bean
Favorite Places
Located in Texas’ Edwards Plateau, Lost Maples State Park has a magical aura. It’s a place where, besides seeing a golden-cheeked warbler, one can see physical evidence of the past. When I visited it, I felt like I had dropped into one of Mother Nature’s special places.
A rocky climb to the top of an Edwards Plateau Ridge in Lost Maples provides evident that this land once lay beneath a sea. -- Photo by Pat Bean
Lost Maples got its name because the maple trees there are far from other maple forests. While it’s most visited when the maple trees wear their brightest fall colors, I find it a place of calm beauty anytime of the year.
Posted in African Safari, Nature, tagged african safari, baobab tree, legends, postaday2011, Tarangire National Park, Tazania, trees on July 27, 2011| 2 Comments »
Baobab: A Tree Worthy of Its Legends
With a top that looks like roots and a trunk that can serve as a house, the baobab trees in Tarangire National Park were worthy of our admiration. -- Photo by Kim Perrin
“The tree is more than first a seed, then a stem, then a living trunk, and then dead timber. The tree is a slow, enduring force straining to win the sky.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery, “The Wisdom of the Sands.”
African Safari:
So often when you travel, you look around and see places and things that remind you of home. In Japan it was the same species of pigeons that commonly hang around public buildings in America. In Ecuador it was a river walk that took me to San Antonio.
But that never seemed to be the case in East Africa. From the chaotic streets of Nairobi to the tall termite mounds in the Serengeti, the landscape always seemed to hold strange, new and wonderful sights – and never anything that spoke of my native country.
It was a different world entirely, or so it seemed.
Among the more exotic African sights for Kim and I were the abundant baobab trees in Tarangire National Park.
Some call these the upside down trees because they look, especially during their long leafless period, like their roots are sticking up in the air. One African myth is that God was so displeased with the taste of its fruit that he turned the tree upside down.
Another legend has it that the baobab complained that it wanted to be taller, like the palm tree, and wanted flowers like the Flame tree, and then that it wanted tastier fruit like the fig tree. The constant whining soon upset the gods, and so they replanted it upside down to shut it up.
I don’t blame them. I don’t much like to listen to whiners myself.
An elephant approaches a huge old baobab tree during its brief time of leaves. -- Wikipedia photo
In actuality, the baobab tree, which can grow to over 80 feet tall and live for thousands of years, grows and looks like it does to fit its often arid environment. It sheds its leaves quickly after they sprout to conserve water, and its huge trunk is its own water storage reservoir to help it survive the dry times.
These trees, at least to me, had a strange beauty about them, especially as we saw many different kinds of wildlife gathered beneath them for the shade they provided. And later I learned that both wildlife and humans sometimes make their homes in the tree’s hollow trunks.
What an amazing tree.
Posted in Birds, Lakes, Nature, Travel, tagged Birds, depression, Guillaume Apollinaire, Idaho, killdeer, Lake Walcott State Park, Mother Nature, postaday2011, Russian olive trees, Snake River, trees on June 20, 2011| 1 Comment »
A starling chick getting its first look at the world. -- Photo by Pat Bean
“Now and then it’s good to pause in our pursuit of happiness and just be happy.” — Guillaume Apollinaire.
Travels With Maggie
I seldom get in funk, but that’s what I found myself in this past week. I’m not sure it was just my computer problems either. Thankfully Mother Nature stuck around to hold my hand and point out how precious every minute of life really is.
A pair of European starlings have been nesting in the self-pay kiosk here in the campground at Lake Walcott State Park. For weeks I’ve been watching as they disappear and reappear from a hole in the back of the small structure.
Yesterday morning I was rewarded with the end result of all the starlings’ hard work. I watched as a chick emerged from the hole for a look at the outside world. It sat on the rim of the hole looking amazed, and totally unafraid of the strange new sights.
It made me recall all the birds I saw in the Galapagos Islands that hadn’t yet, and hopefully never, been given reason to fear humans. I had a Galapagos mockingbird actually land on my shoe, and a blue-footed booby that refused to move off a trail to let me pass. I was the one who had to go around.
Later, when Maggie and I took our daily circuit around the park, Mother Nature continued to share her wonders with me.
Mother Nature is generous with her gifts here at Lake Walcott State Park. -- Photo by Pat Bean
The huge willow trees that were leafless when I first arrived in May are now bursting with lush green leaves that dip down to the ground. The frosty green Russian olive trees add texture to the park’s lively green landscape, while the flowering trees give it color.
Honking geese, giggles coming off rushing rapids on the Snake River that feeds the lake, screeching killdeer, rustling tree branches and cheery robins provide the musical background.
It’s as if Mother Nature is laughing at my funk and telling me to get over it. I heeded her advice.
Posted in Nature, Travel, tagged Birds, Goose Island State Park, postaday2011, Texas, trees, wind on April 17, 2011| 9 Comments »
“I soon realized that no journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.” Lillian Smith
Has life shaped you like a gulf wind has shaped this Goose Island State Park tree? -- Photo by Pat Bean
Travels With Maggie
Standing in a field of grass patterned with bluebonnets at Goose Island State Park is a tree that’s allowed wind blowing in from the Gulf of Mexico to shape its profile.
It wasn’t much different, I thought on first seeing it, then how life shapes us humans.
For some odd reason, I thought again this morning about that tree, which I had photographed last April when I spent a week with my dog, Maggie, on Goose Island birdwatching. I think my brain was triggered in that direction after reading the quote: “Normal is a setting on a washing machine.”
On finding the photograph, I decided to blog about the message the tree had conveyed to me.
I’m not sure now that was such a good idea.
My thoughts, just as I placed my fingers on the keyboard, became such a jungle of contradictions that I’ was suddenly struck wordless. That’s a rarity by the way.
Do I write about how walking into a newsroom the first time pushed the rest of my life into a direction as slanted as that tree? Or about how coming out of a raft and being pulled beneath it gave me more appreciation of life? Or about how travel has opened up new worlds and new ways of thinking?
I couldn’t decide.
Perhaps some less confused blog readers can help me out. How has life shaped you? I’d really like to know.
“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters.” — Ursula K. Le Guin
Pat Bean is a writer, avid birder, hiker and passionate nature observer with wanderlust in her soul. She spent nine years living and traveling in a small RV. She now lives in Tucson with Scamp, a rescue who was supposed to be a Schnauzer mix but turned out to be a Siberian Husky-Shih Tzu mix who is as stubborn as his owner, her granddaughter says. She was also a journalist for 37 years, and can be reached at patbean@msn.com
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