Friday, December 22, 2006

The Fairy House Tree

Today should be the first day of the new year, not that January day. The shortest day and longest night of the year has ended, and so the return of the day’s light begins, at least theoretically. Here, this morning is gray and gloomy with no sign of sunshine. It is so overcast that I couldn’t tell you when sunrise occurred, just that it seemed pretty late before it was light enough to walk across the deck without stumbling in the dark.

The photo today is of what I call the fairy house tree. The open tree hole has sheltered chipmunks and squirrels in the past, but is now large enough to shelter opossums and raccoons. If it gets much larger before the tree falls, I’ll soon be able to crawl in there.

One of the reasons I took this photo this morning is because I’m afraid this tree will soon fall or be cut (it’s near the road). And I wanted to get a photo of it before it did. I'd love to be small enough to crawl inside and use it as my house, or at least a place to have a tea party or sleep overnight. Wouldn't that be great fun!

5 comments:

Lynne at Hasty Brook said...

I used to immagine as a kid having a hollowed tree trunk to hide in and keep secret. Yours looks great!

Anonymous said...

Reminds of the book call "My Side of the Mountain" by Jean Craighead George. The character Sam eventually hollowed out a tree to live in.

Sorry for not blogging at the blogger site. I have busy at work and coming home tired and it was just easy to blog at one place.

Anonymous said...

A perfect fairy-house. I can just see them lounging around the front door on a sunny day..

Anonymous said...

I have a few trees in my woods like that one. I understand there are some trees (in Africa or Australia -- I don't remember which for certain) that are massive and hollow and in which some human families really do make their homes.

Joe said...

Carolyn- I have no idea who the photographer is in that eagle picture...

Sorry.