still with the markmaking

Daily Markmaking is now in year nine. Can you believe it? I had to check it twice.

Yesterday was #3048: this very small section of a very large red oak (Quercus rubra).

We are at the tipping point of leafing out. In a matter of days, the view I've been enjoying for months - the complex structure of tree branches of many species and growth stages - will disappear in a sea of leaves, and I will spend months enjoying that view. The transition is always such a special time.

At the moment we are in what I think of as the pointillistic phase.

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glorious days and early nights

Where my day begins:

Just outside my door, facing East.

 

Where my day ends:

Just outside my door, facing West.

In between, there's usually some of this:

And a little bit of this:

And a whole lot of this:

It's been a long couple of weeks of combing goats,

and the end is not in sight. 

But I can see progress.

Here are Acer and Dara, demonstrating "After" and "Before:"

Acer had been combed three times at this point,
and Dara was going to have his first combing as soon as I could get a collar on him.

I hope your May is going beautifully!

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wordless wednesday

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it only comes once a year

Fagus grandifolia

"American beech"

Leaf-out is always a deeply inspiring time of year for me,

and beech leaf-out is one of my favorite miracles.

Beech is one of my favorite hardwoods anyway, at any season and at all stages of its life. I love every shade of every color in the leaves, and the cool, smooth grey of the boles and branches.

I love the way some of the leaves will remain on beeches throughout Autumn and Winter, dried and shaped by the prevailing winds until the entire tree takes on a sculptural quality. On a calm Winter's day without a breath of a breeze, the beech still appears to be in motion. It's a brilliant artistic collaboration between the trees and the wind.

And it's all beginning again, right now.

Right this minute.

Once it begins, beech leaf-out happens very quickly.

 

I am so glad I had the chance to see it again.

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These pictures are all from a couple of young beech saplings, about ten feet tall, that I saw on my walk with Piper this morning. The black flies are terrible right now, so this was the only time I stood still for more than a few seconds; the rest of our walk was at a fairly steady pace.

It was apparently exhausting.

Well...not really. I'd like to pretend I walked so far and so fast that I wore Piper out, but in fact this Extreme Nap was the result of the big lunch she had when we got home.

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