Day #212 Dead Tree Art

Some time ago I had three dead maples cut down. The resulting light and extra root space has been very good for my tulip poplar tree (and the resultant pollen the bees enjoyed).

I promised you that, when I figured out how to get the pictures out of the camera, I’d show you the starburst patterns formed by the dead channels at the heart of the tree.

Here they are.  The first one is an angled cut.

Firewood ready for splitting.

Amazing, eh?

When I look at the beauty in these dead pieces of wood, I can’t help but think about my mother, who died 8 years ago today. It was the day after mother’s day. My sister and I chose not to have her embalmed, and her dead body was beautiful in much the same way that this wood is beautiful. Years later, when it was time to write Indigo as an Iris, I wanted to share this experience with my readers, so I wrote about green funerals and about the gentle look of bodies that are not filled with embalming chemicals.

Now, when I find a dead bee on the deck, I gently tuck it underground, knowing that it will become food for the trees that sustain the bee hive community.

BEEattitude for Day # 212:

       Blessed are those who take care of the trees, for they shall enjoy shade, and we bees shall bless those people with honey.

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Day #88 I Think I'm Going to Have a Problem

I was sitting here yesterday looking out the bay window, idly trying to decide how tor resolve a scene in the new mystery I'm writing, when I noticed the leaves on the deck.

"Yeah," you say, "so what?"

Well, my house is surrounded by trees, so I get a lot of lovely shade in the summer, which keeps the house relatively cool in the Georgia heat. My highest electricity bill last summer was $47. There are pines to the north and south of my house, but on the west, there's nothing but tertiary deciduous forest in my back yard. And there's this season called Autumn.

I'd swear that every tree west of me dumps its leaves on my deck. They do it pretty much all year round -- trees drop some leaves even in the summer, and there are several kinds of trees, like the beeches, that hold onto their leaves and wait until spring (which is when my bees will be getting started) to drop them.

That translates to a lot of leaves on  my back deck. I'm pretty sure there must be a miniscule trade wind that swoops through the trees way back beside the creek and swirls them over here. "Oh look! A deck! What a great place to drop this load of leaves!"

Now, normally, the fallen leaves provide exercise for me throughout the spring and summer and fun for my grandkids in the autumn when they sweep leaves into big piles before we transfer them to the compost pile. Fine.

I took my hive outside, though, to see what it would look like on the deck. It's certainly going to mess up my sweeping pattern. And two or three of them will make it even harder. I'll have to place the hives far enough away from each other and from the deck railing that I'll be able to get my big broom in between them. I hope the sweeping won't bother the bees, because that big wide broom is hard to control. I'm always bumping it into things. I don't think the bees will like it if I bump the hive.

Good grief, Fran! Just use a narrower broom.

Oh. In that case, forget it. I guess I don't have a problem.


BEEattitude for Day # 88:

       Blessed are those who plant trees, for they shall breathe better. 

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       The tulip poplar that graces my front yard. (Tulip poplar trees produce flowers that honeybees love!)