Winter

It's the end of the year. Many of us are blanketed with a nice insulating cover of snow.  It's a quiet period of rest, a time of reflecting and recharging - all of which will lead to healthier limbs and more energy in the Spring.

This is the view from my kitchen window.

Carmen Miranda

Have mercy! I'm on holiday time and completely forgot about posting my Saturday tree post. It might have been the three bazillion hours I spent in the theater with Les Miserables yesterday.

I took this shot outside our community library after a good snowfall. It reminded me for all the world of Carmen Miranda -- Broadway actress/dancer/singer from the 40s-50s -- with her gorgeous signature headdresses.

Yes. That is how my mind works.

This is my last tree post of 2012.

See you in 2013.

Cheers!

Winter berries

This tree has clung to those two last berries for weeks. I love its tenacity.

Merry Christmas

I have a couple of parrots, one of whom likes to chew on everything in the house. I won't show you what she did to the fiberoptic tree last year or the pine cone wreath this year. One word sums it up - carnage.

At the Distillery District at the beginning of the month, I saw a booth with trees for sale. For every tree purchased, Trees Ontario would plant another one.  How could I resist.

This is my little tree - a white pine.  It's hiding in my office behind the laptop so that the little bird doesn't see it.

Christmas Frenzy...

Christmas Frenzy.

Taken at the Distillery District, Toronto, Ontario.

We spent an afternoon and evening at the Toronto Christmas Market being held there. If you're visiting Toronto next year during early December, put it on your list.

This was an unintended shot. Sometimes they're the best.

May you feel the joy of the season.

Cheers!

Otherworldly...

Michigander Sister took this shot Friday morning from a window overlooking her woods.

The hawk had been on the ground under her bird feeder pole with a mouse. When she lifted her Samsung Tablet to take the pic, he flew into the tree.

The delicate snow and near black and white exposure lend it an otherworldly quality, which I love.

Do click on it to see a much larger version.

Thanks, Sis, for letting me share your rockin' image here at The Daily Tree blog.

Cheers!

Royal Tree

It's a bit of a cheat because this tree is indoors but I had to pose in front of it when we were at Holyrood Castle. The crowns and lights were the only decorations.  Everything else would have been superfluous. 

Lakeside Park

Sunset at Lakeside Park last summer. Trees line the shoreline and it is perfect.

Stark beauty

I was thinking this weekend about the ache in my heart.  After much rumination, I realized that trees really do feed my soul. Sure they take take of the oxygen so that my brain is healthy but I'm sure I wouldn't survive long in a tree-less landscape.  They provide comfort with their beauty and steadfastness. They tether land and sky and remind me that there is so much more than we will ever understand.

Repurposed tree...

Repurposed tree, all glammed up with red bow.

Cheers!

Working trees...

 

This is the Fairytale Forest Maze down at the Distillery District in Toronto, Ontario. 

Working Trees!

Cheers.

Dunfermline

I really like the size and stature of this tree. Except on the day we met, I was trying to recreate an artist's sketch of the abbey that we have at home. There isn't a tree in the rendering.

There is in my version. I actually prefer it but not that day 

Sumac

 They've lost all their leaves. They look like alien pods

Not solitary at all

This little tree was surrounded by many older and wiser. I liked it a lot.

Shedding...

Do you know what this tree is? I don't. I do love the shedding of the bark and hope it isn't indicative of disease.

Snapped in Michigan in October.

Cheers!

Tree Tail...

First, I love the bark on this tree. It makes me think of zebras. And then, there's the tail. Win. Win.

Snapped in Michigan in October.

Cheers!

Muir Woods

This photo was taken by another friend of ours, KL, on her vacation.  Her husband is a fantastic photographer.  I love the play of light on the trees in the background.  It really makes the foreground tree pop.  I half expect to see fairies in there somewhere.

Another Japanese maple

This one looks like someone pruned the top off it.  It's very boxy tucked up against the library window.   Maybe they grow that way?

Tree from Pam

Our friend Pam hung halfway out of the car to take this fun photo of a tree along the Pacific Coast highway.  I like that other people are viewing the world through arbor-tinted eyes.

Single...

Seen in the wild in Gatineau Park, Hull, Quebec. This is one of my favorite parks, oft-visited in the autumn for the spectacular display of leafage.

Single.

Cheers!

Babysitting...

This was taken last April at High Park in Toronto, Ontario. Spanning 400 acres, it is part nature park and part recreational park.

Cheers!

My Japanese Maple

This was supposed to be one of the delicate, lace-cut Japanese maples. Someone was helping me excavate the pond and hit the sapling with debris.  We tried saving it but it didn't make it. Clearly, it had been grafted to another variety entirely.  Despite the bare sumac towering over the fence, my little maple is actually eight feet tall. I have grown to love it.

Bent

I am not standing at a weird angle. The tree really is bent like that. I'm not sure what it's reaching for - the sky?

Yoga Class

Class in session at Edwards Gardens, Toronto.

Cheers!

Head Over Heels...

The first thing that popped into my mind when I saw this image was Head Over Heels. I have no idea.

Living the beach life at one of my favorite parks off Lake Ontario.

Cheers!

Majestic

One of the reasons we set up this blog was that each of us has over a thousand photos of trees. Yet, I spent last week racing around on my way to work snapping pics of every tree that catches my eye on that drive.  It amuses my coworkers no end. But it's good clean harmless fun for all of us so that can only be a good thing.

I backed up and turned around for this stately beauty.

Look at that weathered bark

And the hollow base.  It's stood like this for several years so one assumes the center is strong.

Blowing in the wind

I'd say, given the branches on these two trees that the wind comes in off the lake

It's more noticeable in this neighbour tree

Growing, growing, growing

There's a tree farm on my drive to work.  These are my favourites.  They're standing straight and proud, quietly growing.

Nesting tree...

 

The leaves drop, outing the summer squatters. There have been three fat nests in this maple each year since this tree reached the age of majority.

Rock out, summer squatters. See you next year.

Cheers!

Ready for winter...

This tree has pretty much shed her leaves. She doesn't seem to mind. Yesterday, I found her stretching her branches toward the autumn sun.

Ready for winter.

Cheers!

These apple trees are still going strong midway through November.

Don't you just want to take a bite?

Sideways

This should really be Theresa's post. She's the one who mentioned a whole separate blog about things in trees. Apparently, it was quite common in Edinburgh to see the oddest things, a traffic cone for example, up a tree.

This is a sight I encounter on my drive to work.

Just in case you cannot believe your eyes, here's a close-up of the ladder, sideways, in the tree.  I hope to catch someone on it at some point so I can ask, "What the hell were you thinking?"

Marching along...

Oh, the color! A beautiful curve of trees in a local cemetery. Marching along.

Tree of Education

She who must be the Tree of Education. It's only fitting. I found her on the University of Prince Edward Island, aka UPEI, while touring there in September.  Look at that branch span.

I'm too sexy for my trunk, to sexy for my...

All I can think of is tree toes when I look at this close up. Enter here to get an education.

Cheers!

Drunken soldiers

"What do you do with a drunken sailor?" Or in this case, soldiers, as these lopsided trees are on the commons in front of Butler's Barracks.

Tree from McB!

A dear friend, McB, sent me these pictures a while back of a tree that she admired. By the way, tree and McB rhyme. Not that McB wasn't special enough to begin with, but to have a name that rhymes with tree...awesome! :)

Pretty bark

If you look at the top of the tree there are holes left by an industrious woodpecker.  I like the way the Sumac leans into the shot.

Hollow House

What a nice little home for a very small family. 

In Captivity...

Along the road in New Brunswick, Canada. In captivity, man!