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...

Primary Colors

Felder Rushing and his bottle tree

After Bo's comment I decided bottle trees needed to be shown. Felder's is small, above. They can be huge.

Google Bottle tree images and you'll be amazed!

Primary Colors

My mom has a bottle tree in her front yard. Beautiful, as it catches the light and turns it into rainbows when the sun is "just right." Dangerous, when the winds come off the lake like a tornado. Wintery and stormy times she carefully removes each bottle and lines them up on the porch in their safe place. I love her bottle tree as much as the neighbors detest it. She's a free spirit and simply laughs. We are both considering the use of bottles as edging for our landscape beds. Felder Rushing does it. I also just read an article in Alabama Gardener magazine about it. According to the article, this method of edging was used on southern plantations long ago. Therefore, we're simply keeping this charming southern custom alive.

This is another random, big yawn blog. Fair warning.

Oh, and speaking of blogging I found a magazine devoted to blogging called Artful Blogging while the Hubs and I were sipping coffee at Barnes & Noble yesterday. Flipping through I delighted in the creativity of the bloggers out there. Wish I had an ounce of their creativity. Artists of all kinds, gardeners, chefs, etc. I would have purchased the magazine for grins but it was $15! Holy schmoly! I carefully placed it back on the rack and backed away.

The current Project Du Jour at the GHT household is Simplification. You know those boxes one carts from place to place, year after year? Dust covers each surface and the bottom is saggy from moisture? Brittle packing tape wrapped and re-wrapped, breaking away at the seams? Seems we have a whole bunch of these boxes. Inside are old crinkled newspaper pages wrapped around various "treasures." Some things are indeed treasures thought lost, and some were various levels of trash. Each box is a project all its own. The dust has been so thick and filled with Lord knows what that the project made me sick the first day until realizing I needed to wear a mask. I never want this kind of project again.

Another project is journaling. Staying OFF the computer and physically writing down various assignments from my therapist. Handwriting is hard. I can type on the computer as fast as I think. Besides, handwriting is just tedious. However, I've been convinced that it is necessary because my brain works differently when I put pen to paper.

Yesterday I bought walking poles and vow to begin walking again. I've been told these help take the shock off knees and hips with the added benefit of increasing your cardiac workout and whatever by 45%. That's what the box says anyway. Well, except for the word "whatever."

That's enough for today. Enjoy the bottle pic from my mom's sunny beach porch. Just wanted to come back and post something - keep this blog alive until I can find out who I am again!

Sunny Day on Wheeler Lake

November 1, 2009

The Last Lake Day

Above was the last sunrise I saw from our lake house before our temporary move to the city. I rose well before sunrise, made coffee and then stole outside to the deck to watch and record the sunrise. Fortunately for me it was a glorious one - all purples and magentas, pinks and violets, blues and fuchsias with a little bit of yellow and orange splashed in for contrast. The lake's surface was smooth, with ribbons of tiny ripples caused by the currents. The loons called across the waters and herons glided silently by except for the occasional croaking. An armada of coots were barely visible at the water's edge, heading westward on a mission. The Giraffe Head Tree was ever alert, her outstretched leg devoid of squirrels this early morning.

That I love this lake is evident in all that I do. It pulls on me like gravity. Eventually its tugging wins and I'm on my way, bags packed and camera charged, ready to orbit this heavenly body for a few days. Recently, our renters let hubby and I know that they would be out of town for a couple of weeks and invited me to come sit on the deck, peruse the yard and soak up the lakeside for as long as I wish. So, the first sunny and warm day we had I left this city life and took my new friend, Eve, to the lake. We had a Girl's Day Out - the third of our recent adventures!

The day was perfect! Sunny and slightly chilly in the morning but it warmed up nicely. After touring my mom's house we walked across the street to see my house. Standing on the deck admiring the Giraffe Head Tree we noticed about 20, give or take, birds way out in the water. Naturally, we didn't have our cameras but we THINK they were mergansers. Actually, we decided to declare them mergansers....just 'cause we could!

Afterward, we drove down the lane to my buddy Carroll's house. Carroll treated us to Mojitos on the deck (YUM!) in the sunshine. Chit chatting among ourselves we were entertained by trilling birds darting about the treetops - Cedar Waxwings! Of course we got photos - these are really cropped. The waxwings would swoop off a branch to snatch a bug in midair, then roll back to a branch to finish its snack. They were such fun to watch. We did NOT get a photo of the three of us together so you know what THAT means? Yep...we have to schedule another day trip!

This guy looks like he has long spurs on his feet!

At attention.

At this point we noticed another group of duck like birds floating westward towards us. At first we thought they were the mergansers but these guys were definitely different. Not as "pointy" as a merganser, nor as streamlined. Eve speculated what they were, then dashed to the car to get her birding book she brought and confirmed it - Blue Winged Teals. I've cropped these photos so you can get a decent look at them. They floated by in leisure fashion while the three of us excitedly pointed and laughed and took photos.

You can clearly see the blue patch on the one in flight.

Yay! Blue Winged Teals!

Landing. Yeah, these aren't the best photos but you have to remember we were excited!

Heading eastward toward the sun for a few minutes. The lighting's a little better.

Saying our goodbyes to Carroll, the waxwings and blue winged teals Eve and I headed back up the lane to meet my mom. Sitting on her front porch, mom poured us both a "bowl" of wine (she's very generous with her libations!) and chatted a bit - then realized we could be across the street sitting on the deck overlooking the lake! That's where we ended our afternoon on the lake, toasting to each other and the lake and the Giraffe Head Tree!

Sunny Day Pals!

Me and mom.

I leave tomorrow for my lake once more for there's an HOA meeting I must attend on Saturday - that's the bad part. However, during my time there I'll see lots of my friends and spend quality time with my mom - that's the GOOD part! If luck is on my side this time I'll get to go out and take some photos - there's an unexplored refuge close to Florence that's calling my name! Have a lovely week, everyone!

What's in a name?

(Photographer unknown)

I've signed up for Google Analytics which provides endless fascination every morning over coffee. The Giraffe Head Tree blog is one of the sites I registered, more out of curiosity than anything else. This morning's coffee survey was most humorous! The Giraffe Head Tree is, as you all know, a special Shagbark Hickory on the bank of our lot overlooking the lake. Read this post to know why the tree is special and why my blog is named after it.

At that time, as a blogging newbie, I never ever thought of people searching the Internet for various data. Here are the top keyword searches that brought people to my blog:

Giraffe favorite tree
Giraffe Head
Giraffe tree favorite
giraffe's favorite tree
"head tree"
first giraffe pictures in 1800
giraffe hug tree

giraffe in a tree

giraffe murrini
giraffes what tree do they love
photography don't tree out of head
picture with people standing and heads formed into trees artist
round head tree
tree in head

My heavens. Googling those same phrases myself I found that none of those people found what they were looking for, I'm afraid.

The number one keyword search was "Gardening Blogs Alabama." Thank heavens I'm a member of Blotanical 'cause someone found me! LOL!

Why did you name YOUR blog as you did?