Amazing…ly Scary

We all know that Mother Nature, even in her finest, can be a force to be reckoned with. Monday, we were hit with another round of sever weather. Its been a rough summer for us. Monday’s storm brought one small tornado to our town with an eight minute path of destruction. There were others in the area as well but this one was too close for comfort. Understand, there is really nothing small about any tornado, they go from bad to horrid. Fortunately, no severe damage was done that I know of and I have not heard of any casualties but I do know some people had to be rescued after the storm.

My house faces east, so the back yard was in full onslaught as the storm made its approached. Pictures don’t really show how black the sky was.

The tornado that was in Davenport was one block from my church and in a last ditch effort to destroy, the tornado took one of our beautiful trees that lined our sidewalk. The storm a few weeks ago took out a tree on the other side of the church by breaking it in half. They will usually do that or completely knock the tree to the ground. But when surveying the ground, I feel the funnel cloud was lifting when it hit this tree and twisted it with the 100 MPH force of the funnel, lifting it into the air. Look at the pictures and see what I mean. I could be totally wrong but this is what I feel happened.

You can see from where the tree was planted, the dirt is not really heaved to one side like they do when knocked over. The hole is rounded and somewhat smooth. The base of the tree also suggests it was twisted off like a bottle cap as no deep roots are present and the roots still attached show a twisted motion.

You can’t tell from the picture, but there is an indention under the trunk. I think the tree was dropped here and feel backwards toward the sidewalk. It left drag marks from it’s home. The drag marks are small as if it was from the trunk, not the tree limbs.

It was moved a good 30-40 feet before falling back to the ground.

Here you can see where the tree was originally planted on your right and now where it lays, 180 degrees from a normal fall direction. As I said earlier, I am no expert, but in my opinion, taking in the size and weight of the tree, plus the direction it is now laying, suggest it fell from the sky. Mother nature can indeed be a scary beast. Remember when storms are coming, please be over-safe to make sure you can take crazy pictures like these once the storm is gone.

And as always, I remind you to be extra kind when you can. You may be that light of sunshine someone needs.

Be Resilient Like Nature

Life can be hard on a good day, but it is those trying days that give us strength. Sometimes God shows us proof of His loving resilience for us through nature. Those who read my blog, know that I have a thing for sunflowers. This was my sunflower from last year.

At one point it had over 50 blooms. But this year I have not been as lucky as we have had some crazy wind storms. My one tall sunflower was growing at about five feet tall when wind broke in half. But ‘Patience’, my one resilient sunflower now has 3 buds. I named it Patience because it is proof of the resilience of nature as it lifts its face to the heavens for the sun and like all flowers do, to show off their beauty to God. Here you can see how the storm knocked Patience to the ground but she refused to stay down.

Her stem is bent and shows scar tissue but still she grows

In 2 Corinthians 12:9-11, Paul reminds us that in our weakness we can be strong as long as we lean on Christ,

⁹But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. ¹⁰That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

Another example of weakness takes on a little different turn. One of the storms this week took down a huge oak tree by our church. While studying the trunk as they finished cutting it down, I saw that the tree was weak on the inside with disease and carpenter ants.

Look how the tree tried to curl it’s trunk around its disease and continue to grow. The trunk’s hole, if you look at it just right, looks like a heart.

I plant to fill that hole with dirt and plant some thrift in it to cascade over the edge of the trunk still showing the beauty of the tree.

While our lives may be hard, somewhere in all that trial, God still sees beauty, even if we don’t. So, don’t give up when it gets hard, but reach for God’s hand and let him show you your beauty in weakness.

And as always, remember to be kind, it shows your inner beauty.

Sycamore No More

I was awakened this morning, a morning I had hoped to sleep in, but no, loud equipment kept me from being able to do that. As I looked out the window, I saw it was tree-trimming people. I was amazed at how two men were going to take down my neighbors huge sycamore tree. It was a beautiful tree and I had taken many pictures of it during the changes of the seasons. It was easily 100 feet tall and the trunk was close to 10 feet in diameter. Here are pictures of its glory this fall and again last month during the snow.

I watched for a while amazed as two men and a laptop-type device controlled a mighty crane. Little by little it took the tree down. It also saddened me how such a beautiful tree had become diseased and a danger to life around it. A sycamore is a tight and heavy wood and as the trunk sections hit the ground, you could feel the ground shake. So, yes it could cause some damage if a storm were to take her down. But it still made me sad so, I wrote a poem to it. After that, I am posting some of the pictures I took as she came down.

Sycamore No More

The beauty we saw that you once had

Has left us forever and we are sad

The base around your mighty trunk

Started to rot and the ground sunk

We heard them come, early one morn

Removing your limbs, our hearts are torn

But we knew the dangers if we let you stay

Winds could break you, your limbs could sway

Watching in sadness, as they took you from us

You said not a word, you made not a fuss

We felt the ground shake while graceful your limbs fell

No longer raised to God, no longer here to dwell

I am a firm believer that all things created by God at some level only, known only by Him, can communicate with Him. And all of His creation is beautiful. Here are a few pictures of the technology now used to take down a tree.

May we always enjoy the beauty of a tree, with the shade it provides, the colors during the different seasons, and even in its death, it provides lumber for building and kindling to keep us warm.

I close with the reminder to be kind. Even trees share and also need kindness.

An Amazing Profession

We know there are many professions out there that require education and training that many of us rely on, like doctors, lawyers, or professors. But there are many amazing jobs that require training and a skill set that many of us don’t have. Jobs that require you to stand on a platform hundreds of feet in the air to wash a window. This past week while I was in Georgia, I watched the tree trimming guys take down an 80’+ tall pine tree. A guy had spikes on his shoes as he climbed up the tall tree, then he had a belt around his waist to secure him to the tree.

I didn’t get the very top shots of him when he started but he dropped down about 10′ below each time before he cut.

After the tree was down, they cleaned up all the shavings, and then the crane truck came in to pick up the logs.

This shot gives you a good idea of how big this tree was. The piece he was trying to roll toward the crane had easily been 40′ up in the air. It was a big pine. It will make some good lumber.

I asked him if he knew how much each piece weighed and he said between 400 and 500 pounds. Knowing this information, it makes more sense of the damage these big trees make if they fall on your house. From inside the house, we could feel the pounding vibration each section made as it fell to the earth.

We need to remember to never look down on one person’s profession as inferior …could you do this? I couldn’t. I am grateful for all the tree trimmers, the window washers, the janitors, and all the professionals who clean up after the rest of us, and of course, the professions that take care of us like firefighters and police. They all deserve the same respect as those who keep our bodies alive, our teeth clean, and our children educated.

So treat each other with respect and kindness and let’s quit judging certain professions as more important than others. Maybe if we can do that, then kindness will be the norm instead of the surprise. There is no job that is not important…if it is not important then it is not needed.

The Lion Continues

Our area of the midwest is under sever weather warning…again. The first band that came through at 9 a.m. had to have had 60-80 mph winds, trees were broken like twigs. Mother Nature can have a really ugly side and I hope all are safe from this latest storm front. I am enclosing a few shots of the trees down at my house – proving that I am glad I have no trees of my own.

This was a huge fir tree that snapped about 20′ high. It came completely across the alleyway and I had to move some branches out of the way to get my car in the safety of the garage in case the storms this afternoon and evening are worse. Fortunately, there was no hail in this wind or there would have been broken windows in my sunroom. My neighbor totally lost their prefab sunroom in their backyard.

This picture looks toward the other direction of the ally. A total of three trees were knocked down crossing it.

The houses across the street are on a rise and they were hit harder by the wind. This tree seemed to have twisted before it gave way and it was a sizable tree.

I always close with a reminder that even in chaos we can always be kind. I got the chance to interact with a neighbor who has never liked me, and we had a nice conversation. Sometimes tragedy brings people together to find a peaceful ground.

So always be kind even when others are not kind to you.

It messes with their head.

And So It Begins…

The change of the season is upon us. The cool evenings have seeped into the leaves of the red maples making them the first to change and my favorite fall trees.

Unfortunately some of the best trees with the widest spreads are in our cemetery. So that is usually my first stop for pictures.

Once the reds are done, the yellows follow making a bright contrast from the reds. Enjoy the season, our last colorful season of the year. While the whites of winter are beautiful in their own way, I do miss the colors of the other three seasons. And in closing I remind you that Kindness never has a season. It should always be spread where ever you can to all kinds of living creatures.

Well, It is February…

Yes, as we hunker down for the 3rd winter storm in two weeks here in the midwest, with well over two accumalative feet of snow already, I am ever thankful I am not in the northeast. The second storm that hit us with 8 inches of snow dumped 3 feet on them.

But I am blessed with a warm house, plenty of food and a nice view of amazing trees, none of which are on my property. Another blessing during the fall. This year I am more taken by the beauty of these naked trees with their innate understanding as they twist their limbs to reach for the sun, their life force in the sky.

The hardwoods are the most amazing as their branches will bend down and then twist up to reach the light as the sun peeks through the leaves absorbing its love. It reminds me of a praying man raising his hand toward to his life source. But there is something majestic about the ever greens as well, as they created a sort of triangle, again pointing to the heavens to it’s life source.

Trees are a reminder to us all showing where the life forces come from for all of creation.

And if we can ever really grasp that concept, then we will begin to understand the beauty of all creation as was meant to be shared and enjoyed. From the largest mountain to the tiniest snowflake. So as we enjoy all there is to see, remember the kindness that begs to come out of creation’s beauty and share that kindness to its most beautiful potential.

Amazing Beauty of Nature

Every season has its own beauty but to me the stoic yet amazing constant in all seasons is the tree. Today I wrote a poem in honor of the beauty of a tree. Hope you enjoy.

Oh, To Be A Tree

Oh, to be a tree, sometimes I wish I was thee

Especially this time of year, when the sky is not clear

Oh, to be a tree, it would be great to be thee

In the long winters keep, all you would do is sleep

Oh, to be a tree, that’d be the life for me

When weather begins to warm, the bees begin to swarm

Oh to be a tree, the honey would drip from thee

With your leaves so green, and the birds sit to preen

Oh to be a tree, the beauty you would see

As your leaves grow thick, the shade is the trick

Oh to be a tree, the laugher just for thee

Of children come to play, making joy of the day

Oh, to be a tree, sometimes I wish I was thee

Then the leaves turn brown, as they fall to the ground

Oh, to be a tree, the beautiful colors you would be

When the snow starts to fall, go and sleep for us all

Oh, to be a tree, how magnificent that would be.

Anita Neal

And as a reminder that I always close with, never forget the beauty of Kindness, in all seasons of life.

Escapist Coloring Club, May

Boy do we need to escape from this mess now, and this is a great way to do that. Some of us are busier than ever and some are at a snail pace. I am somewhere in the middle but lean more toward the snail. I wanted to color something to make it feel like spring, even though we are still in long sleeve.

IMG_20200506_154307_1

Come join in the our fun way to relieve stress get in touch with your inner child. Linda G Hill hosts this prompt once a month as The Escapist Coloring Club Prompt.

And remember to always be kind with all people and all creatures, especially when things are so unhappy. You may never realize the affect you have in doing so.

be kind

Beauty In Life, SMM

Irene of Heaven’s Sunshine has a Monday post of macro photography, and while I only have my cell phone, it does a pretty decent job. Since my state is “shelter in place” we are not out and about but after the spring snow from last night, about 2 inches, I just had to walk around the block. It was early and no one much was out but the distinct sound of the wood peckers tat-tat-tat could be heard as it echoed through the quiet morning. The first couple of pictures follow the “macro” theme but I am also including the beauty I saw this morning of the naked trees draped in the graceful beauty of white as they stretch their limbs toward heaven, something we need to do as well in this time of challenge and sadness. May you all be safe during this time.

Hope you enjoy a few of the 40+ pictures I took from this best kind of snow – beauty with clear streets – not that I am going anywhere…

Hill up 36th

And as always, remember the beauty of life, even in dark times. There is always a silver lining even though it may be too small to see – it can be felt.

Isaiah encouragement