Vines

Berries on Vine

A few years ago, my friend Linda started me looking at trees again.  As it happens, I've loved trees for as long as I can remember.  Not all trees, of course -- I like the wild ones in general, and the twisty, gnarly ones in particular.  I also love bare tree branches.  Many writers describe them as skeletal, but I don't see them that way.  I find them mysterious. Geometric.  Strong. Graceful. I like the way they carve up the sky, catch light, throw shadows around. I just like them.

Today I spent time with bent and twisted tree behind the karate dojo. It is almost completely covered in some kind of vine - an ivy of some sort?  I don't know.  Anyway, although the biologist in me knows that this vine isn't doing the tree any good, I couldn't help feeling that it was blanketing the tree in nothing but supportive ways - warming it, protecting it, shielding it. 

Turns out that the vine is loaded with berries, which I'd never seen before.  And now I'm wondering if they will bring cedar waxwings soon.