Lee Drive
Plants
Kenilworth Ivy
Tall oak’s final day
Eugenio Cruz the tree man noticed woodpecker holes and the decay on both trunks above the fork. A second opinion agreed it was a fatal flaw in this tall white oak only 35 feet from the house. So piece by piece four men took about four hours to remove it today.
After the fact photos by Eugenio Cruz
A walk in the woods
Photo by Elspeth, about 3pm, in the Nine Corners. The 9″ snow of a week prior was down to about 3″, crisp but yielding. This was the first day of temperature up to about 45°F, 7°C, but nobody got muddy. It’s the dead leaves on the birches seeming here to be almost glowing in the sun. Lots of animal tracks, including squirrel, rabbit, and deer. Tim wondered if we’d spotted black bear pawprints.
Christmas Eve Morning
Stafford, Virginia
Three-Legged Table
Here’s our new three-legged table, created by our next-door neighbor Jack Murray and presented to us as a gift. I had been saving that hunk of oak in the garage for 15 or 20 years, intending to try some woodwork myself. Deciding I was never going to get around to it, rather than put it on the firewood pile I asked Jack if he’d like it for his own woodworking hobby. Thank you, Jack!
Fringe tree blossom
April 24th in the woods just behind the house, almost our only fringe tree, aka old man’s beard. (Only sometimes attacked by the Emerald Ash Borer. See https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/chionanthus-virginicus/.) We do have one other. They’re hard to identify without the blooms. A long shot six days later:
Reflection(s)
Redbud and cherry and woods turning green, via the bathroom mirror, April 2nd.
Almost same direction, via the glass-top patio table, a week later, April 6th.
Men in Trees
The 80-foot white oak near the northwest corner of the house has a fork we don’t want to split. The Bartlett Tree Experts installed a 7-foot quarter-inch steel cable intended to reduce the risk.
Fredericksburg
Ginko tree (Nov 5th and Nov 19th 2022) at the US National Cemetery, with St George’s church spire in the distance. And again, the third photo, 6:45am June 3rd 2023. This is a site of the Confederate defenses of Fredericksburg, and often a pleasant part of my Saturday morning run.
