If You Could Wander

    If you could wander on the earth during any time

in history, what era would you most like to visit?

     I first posted this photo, Frozen Limbs, in February of last year. It was taken at Ballard Nature Center's Second Creek, around sunset. The picture already had natural blue tints to it, so I added more greys using Picnik. It now reminds me of pictures that I've seen of the Illinois woods during the time of early settlers of the 1800's.

     One does not have to go very far into any woods, to get a glimpse of the struggles they must have gone though to clear the land and build their homesteads. My own grandfather was raised in such a home not far from where this photo was taken. So, my first intention was to tell you how I would love to wander through the woods of the past. And then............

    I took the same photo, deepened the colors and stretched some portions to give it an entirely different feel. Were I to wander through these woods, I would hope to see an entirely different type of creature then an early-American settler. (But I would borrow his ax, just for protection of course.)

     I fully realizze that the bottom picture is a feeble, if any, attempt at manipulating a photo to show emotion. For a real, professional look at the art, I checked out Digital Art Revolution: Creating Fine Art with Photoshop. After seeing what can REALLY be done, I feel I must offer my sincere apologies to all true digital artists out there.

     To learn more about the early settlers, go to  An Open Land: Views of the Midwest Landscape by Early Travelers and Settlers, Prairie School Artists, Photographers, Poets, and Musicians 

Festival of the Trees #54 Arboreal Mysteries

    



As many of us walk our favorite paths through parks and woodlands, its easy to take for granted the weathered old trees that seem to have stood forever.
     One such tree was was this gnarled cottonwood, estimated to be around 80+ years old. Other than the mysteries of unknown that this silent giant has witnessed in the city park where it stood, this tree held another secret deep inside.
     Hidden in this tree, unknown to anyone at the time, were three complete, active bee hives. The first hive was discovered when a large portion of the tree snapped off during a wind storm, revealing a hollow trunk. When a tree service crew brought down the rest of the tree, the other hives were exposed, and angry bees swarmed the workers.
     I wish harm to no one, but I am glad that this beauty did not go down without a fight, even if its defenders were its inhabitants. This tree has stood for generations providing shade to visitors from all walks of life who frequented the park. Standing as a young tree before the park was created over sixty years ago, the road was actually built around it. In other words, it had more of a right to be there than any of us.
     Now, sadly, there are no physical signs left that this tree existed. All logs and branches have been removed, the stump has been ground to sawdust and hauled away, even the mystery inhabitants have been moved to a new home.
     At this time, I know of no other pictures that have been taken of this tree. I snapped this one with my LG Voyager cell phone camera at dusk about a year ago. It has since become one of my favorites; a testament that life is worth fighting for.

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For more great blogs about trees, go to
 Festivial of the Trees.

To help children learn the importance of trees in our ecosystem,

check out this book and its great reviews:

Happy Thanksgiving, USA!

Big Bluestem grass in autumn, above.

Big Bluestem in summer, below.

Angel Wing

This beauty was on top of a fallen log, deep in the woods on Second Creek Trail. It measured over 18 inches, side to side.  If anyone of my fabulous readers can reallly identify this fungus, I would love to know! 

Welcome Skywatchers!

It was a cold, overcast day here in Illinois, normal weather for November.

This photo from my files keeps me thinking days gone by.

Another autumn of the past --

For even more fantastic Sky Watch photos, click here.

That's My World!

A walk around the lake before the sun went down, and all I had was my cell phone camera working. What the shot doesn't show is how cold and windy it was on the trail.

The shots were taken only two minutes apart,

with no changes in the camera settings and no photoshop.

This shows how important the position of the sun and clouds can be in a photo.

Go and check out more MyWorld images at the MyWorld Site!

Golden Bridge

A golden autumn view from the the top of the hill looking down on the Second Creek Bridge.