The trees are tired and who can blame them? Scorched by the sun last week and then ravaged by the wind on the weekend, they’re ready to retire for the season.
Up close the leaves look blemished, nibbled by insects and tattered by the wind. They’ve seen better days. As the leaves have yet to turn color for the fall, after Hurricane Earl departed it was odd to see so many green ones covering the forest floor.
Earl’s high winds beat many of the trees to the ground. Some tried their best to accommodate the wind by bending, but even a young tree can only bend so far before it’s folded in half and unable to get back up again.
Lulled to sleep by the soft buzz of chainsaws in the distance, some have become logs, ready for the deep rest that comes once one is covered with mosses.
I like trees because they seem more resigned to the way they have to live than other things do. ~Willa Cather
Flandrum Hill 
Blessings to the trees, so thrown around in the wind and nibbled by insects. May they slumber deep in their roots, gain their strength and wave their new green leaves joyfully in the spring sun.
Kathy, they are looking more wrinkly and crisp by the minute and can use all the blessings you can offer.
I LIKE trees because They ARE Trees!
47whitebuffalo, that is enough reason for me too. There is nothing else like them on the planet.
Miss Amy-Lynn – So glad you were safe in the storm….thought about you lots! I love your third picture of the leaves in the dappled sunshine…..wondermous 🙂
Cindy Lou, stands of trees surround my home on all sides and I think they bear the brunt of the storms (instead of my house).
Dappled sunshine on the forest floor is always such a delight to find.
Trees being trees..even in death they will fulfill their purpose of existence.
Swaps, what beautiful, useful creatures they are!
Life may get changed but it lumbers on. Very nice posting here and of the time before the storm, Amy.
Thank you Scott. It does lumber on at times. Good word choice.
Wonderful observations, Amy-Lynn, and I love your quote at the end. Here’s one of my favourites: “Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,We fell them down and turn them into paper, That we may record our emptiness.- Kahlil Gibran
So glad you came through the storm with your heart in tact.
Cindy
Cindy, that is such a beautiful quotation. Isn’t it nice that our blogging doesn’t require paper?
I see what you mean about your trees, Amy-Lynn. A very similar phenomenon; just too worn out to fall in the autumn sense. Simply slipping away instead. It would be interesting to see if they come back in any way changed – different day of leafing; lesser, the same or greater degree of density in the canopy; any branches that die back. How easily we could pass a life in the company and study of a single tree!
Julian, the predictability and unpredictability of trees makes them an indispensable presence in my life. I also wonder if it’s because they woke up so early this year that they tired out so soon.
Oh, my, whupped around, weren’t they! And Mama Nature sitting there looking so sunny and placid as if she’d never thrown a temper tantrum at all. Ha.
And now it’s time to cut the windfall into nice firelogs and stack them against the winter of 2011-2012. Waste not want not.
Gerry, what a temper tantrum indeed!
What is left standing will also be used by insects and small creatures for homes in the years to come.
Love the Cather quote. After reading your post, I was reminded of all the trees lost following Rita (hit Texas after Katrina hit). My mother owns about 20 acres and I visited shortly after the storm. Whole areas were just flattened. Thankfully her’s was not one of them, but she did lose many trees. Thanks as always for your thoughtful sharing.
Glad you enjoyed the post Yousei 🙂 It’s amazing how strong, tall trees can be flattened like matchsticks. Air is stronger than wood.
Trees are among our dearest of friends, in more ways than one. Love the Willa Cather and Kahlil Gibran quotes… It sounds like you weathered the storm all right, I was wondering how you made out up there when Earl made landfall!
Barbara, trees accompany us through so many stages in our lives. They are indeed friends.
How many times – on warm days – have I sent up a silent note of thanks? Noble and tired, trees will think nothing of protecting me from the terrible Southern California sunlight.
Aubrey, they certainly are wonderful protectors. Thank you for adding that 🙂