‘Winterlaced’
Winterlaced
Tag: Trees
In The Pines
‘In The Pines’
The below song ,an old favourite of mine from Western Australian group The Triffids, came to mind as I walked through some coastal pines the other day. A bit mournful, like the wind whistling through the pines…
Palmtop Crown
‘Palmtop Crown’
…you wear it well..
Memorial Arboreal
‘Memorial Arboreal’
…carved memories, swathed in trees…
Life Lines
‘Life Lines’
…lines to infinity…
Three Bare Poplars
‘Three Bare Poplars’
I Looked Up
‘I Looked Up’
Striped Palmery
‘Striped Palmery’
Sculpture & Palms
‘Sculpture & Palms’
Spiked Crown
‘Spiked Crown’
The symmetical beauty of a nikau palm gets a grey makeover, just for the hell of it. For another view, and words, relating to the world’s southernmost palm, see Nikau Palm .
Gothic Arboretum II
‘Gothic Arboretum II’
More dark in the park; see also Gothic Arboretum
Fronds, boughs, leaves…and shadows.
Always shadows.
They don’t last forever though, and they serve to give perspective to light.
You can’t grow without them both.
Parklife
‘Parklife’
Gothic Arboretum
Trio
Through The Trees
‘Through The Trees’                                                 Hanmer Springs, NZ.  July 2013
                                                                                                                                                 Â
                                           wooden shafts
                                                       shafts of light and air
                                                                 run parallel
                                                                            then merge
                                                                                       in memories
Branches
‘Branches’
Branches.
They have spread and influence.
This picture is only of branches.
No trunk or visible roots.
A friend and former legal colleague of mine was announced as a judge recently and will take her place on the bench (in court, that is) soon.
It’s a position with spread and influence for sure, imbued with all the decision making powers that can right wrongs and change lives.
But it can be lonely at the top of the legal tree.
Lonely anywhere at the top, really.
I suppose that any time we get to rarified, or even isolated, places, it is crucial to remember your trunk and your roots.
The sort of life experiences and foundations that took you to where you are now.
In the soon-to-be judge’s case that will include all the clients she battled hard for in difficult situations, who will be looking back at her in the faces of those she must now make decisions for and about.
You will hopefully have your own trunk and roots system to sustain you and call upon, as you spread out and upwards, or merely when you find yourself alone.
Touch wood…
In Dingle Dell
Yeah, I know it rhymes with jingle bells and sounds sorta made up, like something from ‘The Hobbit’, but Dingle Dell is an actual place.
What it is, is a bushland oasis, a sanctuary if you will, right in the midst of suburban Auckland ,and only five minutes from my home.
Decades ago a group of forward minded individuals planted out the difficult terrain in native tree species. Matured now, it is the thriving habitat of numerous endemic species.
I was there yesterday, on the last day of school holidays, with my daughter.
She couldn’t recall the place. Surely I had taken her there…hadn’t I ? Well, not for years , if so. Remiss of me. I mean, I could remember being taken there by my parents but….
Together we stood quietly as tui and fantails fed and preened in the bush canopy. No one else around. Special.
My learnings from the time amongst the trees, navigating the shaded, serpentine tracks were:
 That we often take for granted what is very familiar to us; we need to spend a  little more time in the quiet wonder of nature – it is humbling actually – and , god, time really does fly – the child becomes the parent and is the guide, not the guided, in a flash.
Oh, and magic is everywhere, not just in fantasy fiction…
Magnolia Dream
‘Magnolia Dream’
                                                             ………………….
The soft, creamy hues of the magnolia flower with its opulent scent – summer signifiers.
So grateful to have a large tree in our backyard, and I took and made this picture last night after some evening rain had fallen.
The distinctive aroma of the flower was magnified by the warm, moist air.
When the tree was planted by us 20 years ago, this image was the dream in my mind…
The Shade And The Space
The cool greenery of native bush is a shady lure as the summer continues to heat up in Aotearoa/ New Zealand.
A refuge from the amped up glare amongst the palms and ferns.
There is just something tranquil about disappearing into a grove of trees and being immersed in green light, the sun battling to break through the leafy canopy.
For however long you are in the bush, it is as if the outside world is irrelevant and time stops ticking.
We all need a place to go like that, I think.
Through The Twilight
“You cannot, in human experience, rush into the light. You have to go through the twilight into the broadening day before the noon comes and the full sun is upon the landscape.” – Woodrow Wilson
Those words sum up my own experience; my picture recreates its memory and serves as a reminder.
When you know a darkness, it is tempting, when you are leaving it, to want to parade in the fullness of light.
However, in the ‘tween time – the twilight – you get to really know show the shapes and forms of the important things, dimly lit as they are.You feel them deeply, even as you peer though the mystical interplay of shadows and light.
There will be plenty of time for full light to illumine all the details…
ebb then flood 