Visiting the Oak Tree

Today I am visiting the oak tree that is featured on the cover of my memoir titled, "Gifts From an Oak Tree".  I haven't sat here in a while and today seems like a good day to receive a gift. 

The sun is slowly rising through the oak and maple tree branches this morning, casting shadows on the ferns that carpet the woodland floor.   A cool breeze makes them flutter just a bit.  I hear a woodpecker gently pecking on a tree east of Lindsay Creek.  Song birds are singing softly but a chickadee is the only one I recognize.

Cooler temperatures sent me outdoors this morning, that and my hubby's mention of a huge spiderweb catching the morning sun's rays between a birch and spruce tree in our yard.  As I gazed at the web, minus it's creator, I marveled at it's intricacy, massive size, and delicateness.  The spider who created it was one of the most talented artists I have ever encountered.  This led me to search the woods for more webs.

As I walked along the trail to the special oak tree, I found spiderwebs everywhere, on dead branches, on evergreens, and on the damp grass along the trail.  Many times the web masters were sitting in the webbing, waiting for a meal.  I marveled at the small size of the creators in comparison to the size of their masterpieces.  It's not that I've never seen spiderwebs before, but today I'm appreciating them more than ever.  They are another wonder in nature that we often take for granted.

I'm starting a new journal today.  It gave me a good feeling to fill up my last one.  My mind plays games with me and wonders if I will get to complete this journal too.  Next week I'm supposed to finish up this series of six chemotherapy treatments.  The last two were delayed because my blood counts were too low and I expect this one will be also.  In a way, that's o.k. with me.

The oak tree is telling me to take comfort in the stability of my life, to be thankful I can come back to this same tree and sit here time and again, and ponder.  So many people are on the go, moving often from place to place, creating new webs like the spiders.  I am thankful and content knowing this is where I'll be, as long as I am me, and the web that I have spun, should last until I'm done!   Thank you, oak tree, for helping me to realize how special a simple thing like stability is in my life.  If you have it in yours, appreciate it.

SUMMER BEAUTIES

July is fading fast.  Does that mean summer is half over with already?  No, not by the calendar, but it does feel that way to me.  I'd like to find a way to keep the clock from ticking so quickly.  Lately I've been enjoying the sights and sounds of summer that include lavender colored flowers in my world.  In marshy areas and around the pond, Hardhack (in the photo above), Joe Pye Weed and Purple Vervain are blooming right on schedule.  I look forward to these beautiful purplish pink flowers every summer in July.

Joe Pye Weed and Purple Vervain

As I walked along the northwest passage this afternoon, dodging deer flies and stepping over wolf scat, I came upon a small flock of chickadees in the tamarack trees calling to one another.  Maybe they are getting ready to start a second summer family.

There is so much to observe in nature this time of year that it is hard for me to know where to begin writing about it all!  I am enjoying the renewal of everything that I enjoyed from summers passed, a little at a time.  I hope you are too!  Sooner than we think, autumn leaves will begin to fall and another summer, another chapter in our lives, will close it's pages and remain only in our memories along with the pleasant scent of Joe Pye Weed.                                                                                                                                                          

Jewel Weed or Touch-Me-Not

White Pond Lily

TIMOTHY GRASS - A FULL JOURNAL

I'd rather be sitting where this little songbird is, atop a tall, spindly, spruce tree on this clear, blue sky, summer day, rather than sitting on the ground taking a picture of it... but I'm glad I had that chance, and here's the photo... 

I'm admiring these beautiful spruce trees in a peaceful place amid a sea of timothy grass as I write in my journal.  Did you ever pull up a stalk of timothy grass and pop it in your mouth and chew on it for a while?  If not, I'd highly recommend doing so; it's never too late.  It doesn't give you a buzz, or anything like that.  Chewing on timothy puts sort of a sweet taste in your mouth and makes you feel like you're a kid again and on top of the world!  

I saw a small whitetail buck on the road up ahead of me on my walk here and after finding a place to rest up I'm just biding my time swatting deer flies and mosquitoes and picking off a few wood ticks, nothing out of the ordinary.  Every summer it seems I ask my hubby when the deer flies will let up and he always says the same thing, "Not until later in August."  UGH!  I think the deer was looking for a deer fly escape himself.  

 
Chickadees are singing all around me in the spruce trees near this peaceful and quiet journaling spot.  

Ox-eye Daisies and Common Yarrow are blooming everywhere and most of the Indian Paintbrush (Orange Hawkweed) have started going to seed.  A mourning dove keeps cooing in the distance, but I don't foresee any rain in the near future.

It's the start of a grand Wisconsin summer, the first week of July, so go grab some timothy grass, give it a chew, and forget all your troubles.  It's working for me, at least for right now, and right now is all that matters!  




My ramblings today fill up the last page of my journal, now full.  I am certain, though, that I can find another one!    I'll share with you the first two pages of this journal just for reflective purposes.  I began writing in it shortly after my ovarian cancer surgery and was trying to pull myself together well before my blog posting adventures began...  I think my thoughts below are good advice for anyone, not just myself.   They're kind of the whole gist of the memoir I recently published and what keeps my sanity today.

"Random thoughts in no particular order:  Attitude is everything.  Although a positive attitude may not prolong your life it will improve the quality of life you do have left and make things easier for those around you..."

"Try to find at least one thing each day with a positive spin on it... no matter how simple that thing might be... the taste of food, blue sky, sight of a bird of any kind, a phone call or email from a friend, a call from a book publisher (NOT), the ability to go to the bathroom, a smile from a stranger, even simpler positive things not yet thought of.  See them, feel them, appreciate them, no matter how small they are."