Live Oaks

Baylee and I are back to enjoying our morning walks.  This, above, is our favorite lane.  One block over from our house we enjoy old, gnarled live oaks that frame us as we stroll.  The undergrowth has been cleared, exposing the twisting, stately trunks and thick branches that underlie their beauty

Sunrise always strikes this particular grouping of live oaks.  While Baylee snuffles and shuffles beneath them following invisible trails of deer and rabbit, coyote and raccoon, I stand in awe, completely mystified by the sight.  Live oaks have always been my favorite trees.  These on the coast are smaller and more windswept than others I've witnessed more inland.  That's just an observation. 

Live oaks are found from southeastern Virginia through the lower Coastal Plain of North Carolina and southward.  Plentiful only south of Cape Hatteras, it is a tree with a wide-spreading crown and very gnarled branches.  Usually, these stately branches are covered with Spanish moss, but they also are a key host to resurrection fern.  Live Oaks are evergreen and long-lived, their tough leathery leaves make them extremely resistant to salt spray.  Their roots can withstand occasional storm surge salt waters. 

Live oaks don't grow particularly tall - usually no more than 50 feet in height.  However, it may have a crown span of 100 feet or more and open-grown trees may have trunk diameters of 6-7 feet.  The wood is very difficult to saw and dry.  Air-dried, the wood weighs about 55 lbs a cubic foot.   Once prized for blocks and ribs on sailing ships it now serves as a highly desirable tree for roadside and ornamental planting along the coast.   The U.S.S. Constitution was one of six frigates authorized in 1794 by President George Washington for national defense.  The ship was built primarily with live oak.  "Old Ironsides" owes it nickname to the live oak tree.  During the War of 1812 someone reportedly witnessed an iron shot bounce off the side of the ship and exclaimed "Huzza, her sides are made of iron!" 

Live oaks' huge canopy provides shelter for numerous species of birds, mammals, reptiles and amphibians.  We find them lying in the sunshine on our deck, occasionally.  Tree frogs and lizards so far - hope that's all that visit.  Live oak acorns are a plentiful and desirable food for a wide variety of wildlife. 

Researching for this post I learned that the coastal maritime forest is among the most endangered of natural communities, facing threat from development in addition to climate change.  Nearly all of North Carolina's old-growth live oaks disappeared by the end of the 19th century.  today, all of the live oak trees in the state from either in developed areas or pockets of maritime forest that are in extreme danger.  Most of this information was lifted directly from "Live Oak" by Kevin Adams.  You can read his entire article by linking here.

Fog on the Beach

We sat on the beach,

Baylee on a leash,

to watch the fog roll in.

Roiling from the north

covering houses like smoke,

curling and smothering sound.

Muted waves crashed.

tide coming in, inching closer

to our toes wave by wave

Gulls stand with sandpipers,

standing on one leg

all in a line, watching

Sun glowed through,

a soft light bathed,

eerily creating fog shadows

Storm-grey blue and green,

bright white foam,

Tan sand and green grass

I touch my hair; it is dripping.

moist dots on Baylee's fur

like sequins.

 Wet thick fog envelopes.

wispy tendrils float

inland over the dunes.

Collecting shells, the sand flies

when we shake the towel

and head for home.

Awakening

Northern Dewberry

Beach bums since Monday, our days have been filled with the busyness of settling in.  Not much time for relaxing or exploring, but those days are approaching.  During downtime I explore the yard.  These little white flowers are everywhere.  Wild and low, rambling along fence lines, peaking their heads up through low decking, they are bright white in the sunshine.  Sunshine.  I'd forgotten how bright the beach is, and how much I love the color of the light.  It's dazzling, and the roads have diamonds glittering within.  But I digress.  

This beauty buzzed by for a visit as I explored.  Gorgeous creature, but not sure exactly what it is.  A wasp seemingly, but the like of which I've not noticed before.  Fortunately, it was more interested in the flowers than in me.  

There are live oaks everywhere, which are one of my top ten favorite trees.  Scattered beneath them are all manner of rambling bushes and plants.  I brought my pruning tools but I've learned not to whack indiscriminately.  Each plant begs identification.  I've no clue what this is, above, but love the little blue berries.  

A yaupon holly is growing tall amid the branches of a live oak.  Until I clear out the underbrush I'm not sure what to do, if anything.  Why do anything at all, Bob asks?  A good question.

A garland of cat-brier vines drape over and within the live oaks' canopies.  They produce these gorgeous, fat, juicy blue-black berries that feed over 13 different species of birds.  Why not leave them there, Bob asks?  Another good question.  

The minutiae of curlicues and spines and bokeh provided by the various plants, blue of the sky beyond.  I just love this image.  

There is a huge palm tree planted out front that does indeed need some trimming before it takes out an eye.  That'll also wait...

Because today, the northern dewberries bloom, casting their shadows as they face the sunshine.  The sky is blue and filled with lines of brown pelicans gliding above the waves, cormorants scurrying northward, and all manner of gulls.  The grackles are making their beachy sounds.  This morning I rescued a box turtle who thought the roadway was a nice place to sleep.  Baylee and I have found a lovely lane lined with sodium lights and live oaks upon which to take our morning walks.  She loves the beach, and bounds and romps with the waves.  This morning I returned to the beach after our walk to watch the sunrise.  There was a storm way out over the ocean which made the sun late in its arrival, but once it came the water, sand and sky was filled with golds, purples, teal and peach.  Again, a glimmer of something began deep, deep within.  My camera rested within its case this morning.  The sunrise was just for me, and me alone.  For I was very alone on the beach.  No other person could be seen.  The Atlantic washing over my bare toes, treasured shells nestled in my drained coffee cup, I stood tall looking out over the ocean and communed with Spirit.  Let the healing begin.

Adventure

This is a bridge to somewhere.  

This is a path to adventure, enlightenment, peace, Spirit

This is Self.

This is a trail that will not be denied.

This is hope and opportunity.

We have been given a gift.  A rare, beautiful, timely gift.  The gift of healing ocean breezes, sunshine, the call of gulls, endless horizons and unexplored grasslands and wetlands.  Turtles and pelicans.  Driftwood and seashells.  Peace.  Calm.  Breath of Life.  

Our house has been sold.  Most of our possessions have been given away, donated, pitched.  The good stuff will go in storage.  For 6-9 months we will be overseeing repairs at my stepfather's house on a beach in North Carolina.  Kure Beach.  We plan to return, unless the lure of the ocean won't allow us to.  It depends.  I feel so free.  So untethered.  My GeoGypsy pal Gaelyn has come to mind so much through this process.  She would be the first to say WAY TA GO! 

After this year of trauma, doctors, hospitals, surgeries, doctors, procedures, physical therapy, counseling, exhaustion, fear, anxiety, and driving, driving, driving we are both so excited about leaving this place of pain.  This house is a good house, a comfortable house, but it has some hard memories we choose to release.  The future is approaching way too fast as we age, and it's time to embrace a new place, new adventures, new smells and sights.  Fresh seafood!  New habitats to explore and write about, photograph and blog.  

I will be sharing my adventures on this blog and another one soon to be announced.  Imagine!  Ferries and wetlands!  The wild winds off the ocean!  What will come on shore tomorrow and the next day?  I will get to see sunrises and sunsets again in all their glory!  Pelicans flying by every day!  It's about damn time I get to use exclamation points again.  I've earned the right and I'll use them often and freely and without shame!  

Thank you all for being my blogging friends all these years.  The Giraffe Head Tree remains on her perch overlooking the Tennessee River, but...you know what?  I just realized...she faces East, and that's where I'm going. 

Stay tuned...

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

"Daffodils"

"I wandered lonely as a cloud

That floats on high o'er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

A host, of golden daffodils; 

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine

And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch'd in never-ending line

Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:

I gazed -- and gazed -- but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie

In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

William Wordsworth - 1804