Trees, Nature & Druidry

@unk-p horrified that farmers would do something like that. Just unbelievable.

Hope that you will find a solution that is good for all, @jeanne-mayell

@jeanne-mayell hi Jeanne, i can't find the article i was reading about the migration patterns of grackles, but it said that the ones who show up in the Northeast usually head out by the end of April, whereas the ones down near the Gulf of Mexico (near me) are permanent residents.  But who knows, that article could be incorrect.

 I have never seen any grackles in my yard, probably because they prefer open lawns and fewer trees.  My lawn is just barely big enough for 2 people to have a picnic, surrounded by jungle.  I do have a tube type feeder that i refill every afternoon.  Mainly doves, cardinals, and bluejays visit it. Oh, and squirrels.  It has a weight activated perch that is meant to exclude squirrels and heavier type birds- but i deactivated that feature as soon as i got it, because everyones gotta eat!

 Here are a couple of other articles about grackles that you may like: Give Grackles a Break

https://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/story/sports/outdoors/2015/04/10/give-grackles-break/25608875/

and: Coping with Grackles

https://www.birdwatchingdaily.com/beginners/getting-started/coping-with-grackles/

 If nothing else works, you could always rip out the lawn and put in more trees and plants, lol ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 

@unk-p. Thank you, so there is hope that they still might leave.  I have  love for them now, though, thanks to you. 

To my arborist friends, I revisit this thread now that spring has sprung and my mystery tree has sprouted leaves.  At some point late this summer we'll remove it, but not until later because if predictions hold true and we're in for a hot summer, this really helps keep the house cooler and all that.

Anyone familiar with the infamous "Tree of the Heavens" - what I've googled is still inconclusive - does this look like it to you?  (It still looks more like our Walnut trees but it's growing too fast and I don't remember our walnut trees sprouting the little white flowers)  

@dannyboy  The leaf structure is different than that of a Tree of Heaven. Walnut tree flowers are not white. The male flowers are yellow-green catkins produced in spring when new foliage appears. The female flowers have attractive pink or reddish pistils. The large leaves (up to 24 inches) are pinnately compound, with 11 to 17 leaflets that are a lighter green in color than most trees. Guess you have to keep trying to identify your mystery tree.

@dannyboy

That's definitely not a tree of heaven. I'm not a tree expert, but I can spot ailanthus from a mile away. The app iNaturalist is good for identifying mystery plants. You take a few pictures of the specimen in question, and either the app identifies it for you OR other iNaturalist users in your area offer suggestions.

My yard is truly the island of misfit nature :-). Thanks for the app suggestion!  

@dannyboy  I could be wrong.. I don't know what sector you live in or if this tree grows in your area? But looks like wild black cherry. Please go to google and type in search bar "wild black cherry tree images" We have a lot of them here in my sector and they can be toxic to your ruminants so sure don't want them in their pastures/feed lots.

@journeywithme2 OMG I think we have a winner!  I tried the app and it told me it was a flower not a tree so I just sort of gave up after a couple of other searches turned up nothing.  But - the flowers, the leaves, and the little berries that come out later in the year - I think you have it!  Thanks to you and everyone for helping me solve this mystery!

I am in Northern Michigan and have no other trees like this in my immediate vicinity so I have absolutely zero clue how it got here or how it's spread (okay the spread makes sense with the berries we get later in the summer)

While this is where my dog... uses the facilities and hangs out on nice days, (and while he does eat like a goat) I would say at this point we haven't had an animal actually eat anything from this tree.

Maybe I'll harvest some of the berries when they go to fruit and drop them a little farther away from the house and see if they'll sprout new trees a little further away from the foundation.

Several websites also say the wood is valuable - someone once told me if I ever needed to take the walnut trees down to make sure whomever I called paid ME and not vice versa.  This seems like it might not be "bonfire wood" after all.

@dannyboy. My experience with wild cherry trees is the birds will descend upon it and eat the fruit pretty quickly. 

@dannyboy   If the birds leave you any they make tasty jams and wine I am told. The fruits are quite small and birds devour as soon as ripe here ( and why they spread so well) Nature's planting team ☺️

@Coyote,

*Thanks for finding this thread for me so could post my tree find here!

@Jeanne-Mayell  You need to watch this!

This story is incredible!  Almost spiritual.  Lots of symbolism.  

Some ancient extinct renowned date palm tree seeds were discovered at the ruins of Masada and were recently given a rebirth.  

Forests of Judean date palm trees once covered ancient Israel, from Lake Galilee to the Dead Sea.

The fruit of the tree symbolised life and prosperity and was praised in ancient literature for its unique medicinal properties. But the dates of Judea were made extinct by the Middle Ages.

https://www.bbc.com/reel/video/p09m0v4x/extinct-tree-from-the-time-of-jesus-rises-from-the-dead

An interesting article in the New York Times today (looking for topics other than Russia to think about).

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/24/climate/celtic-wisdom-trees-climate.html

Diana Beresford-Kroeger, a botanist and author, has created a forest with tree species handpicked for their ability to withstand a warming planet.

As trees lack legs with which to migrate northward, this kind of thinking and foresight is important, to say the least, in a rapidly changing climate.

@raincloud Thank you for this gem of an article. This woman is such a breath of fresh air for all of us. I'd like to plant some of this trees in my back yard. 

Someone in our community predicted some time ago that the redwoods would be in the news, and then a news story emerged that they are migrating northwards.  

Ressurecting this thread.  This is a time of year when my mental health is always at a low point.  It's the same for a lot of people in education.  So I head back to nature to help balance what the gummies I take for my anxiety and depression cannot.

I concluded my "walks in the woods" behind work last fall on what was literally the last day before the snow fell and I felt once again the land going back to sleep (as I did last spring when I was training for my couch to 5K and did walks behind my house while working from home).  Today was the first nice day and I went back to the woods behind work, armed only with my Apple Watch, my Beats Fit Pro earbuds, and an Apple "Time to Walk".

There is a tree - I will try to get a picture of it the next time the weather is decent (won't be until next week) that I felt compelled to touch last fall, that I touched again today.  Boy is it active!  I touched it with one hand and instantly felt a thrumming in my head.  Almost overpowering. It wanted to tell me something but I'll be darned if I could get any sort of sense for what.  Just that there's some power in that trunk and it was grateful that I acknowledged it.

This really is my favorite time of the year - when things start to awaken. 

If you listen for Gaia's morning "stretch" as she shakes the covers off and prepares for her "day" it's the most amazing thing in the world.

Light and love to you all!

@Dannyboy  When I walk in the woods, I ask the trees what they would have me know.  Sometimes I ask specific questions about my worries.  Then I keep walking and accept whatever ideas come into my head.  

Today I asked the trees about Ukraine and Putin and kept walking.  Then I noticed all the understory trees that were coming back to life, the leaves budding out.  This made me think of the renewal and rebirth that spring brings us, the promise of new life.  And I realized that for all the destruction and death in Ukraine, Ukraine is still alive and there will be renewal, rebirth and a promise of new life for that country.  Then I kept on walking and my eyes were drawn to a dead tree.  All the branches were gone and all that remained was a dead trunk reaching up high, but not to the height of the Douglas fir canopy.  In the middle of this forest coming back to life there was this old, decaying trunk and I saw the dead tree as Putin.  He won’t succeed in his war with Ukraine.  Instead, all his oligarch branches will fall away and he will be alone, decaying back into the earth.

Tree energy is real-you can feel its vibration in your hand.  Now try letting the vibration come into your mind.

@bluebelle 

@dannyboy

Both of your posts Bluebelle and Dannyboy , they are inspiring, wonderfully mystical and deeply spiritual.  I love your conversations with the trees and how they respond to each of you.  Tree whispers are amongst us.

@Jeanne-mayell

My brother has offered to pay me to clean out my storage building, and since I need my car worked on, I'm going to do it. I was out in the building, about 5:30 PM, getting a few things, when I heard a noise. I thought it was one of the cats, but when I turned to see who it was, I  saw a raccoon staring at me. I pretended not to see it, and turned around to get a some things and left. I don't know if that was the smart thing to do, and I wonder what will happen when they start cleaning it out. 

@dannyboy 

A few years before the pandemic I was involved in some Druidry classes over the course of a few months.  We did classes on just touching and listening to the trees, and another one on ley lines on a different day.  One of the folks in the class described an experience like the one you mentioned - feeling a lot of energy and a humming or vibration from a particular tree.  It turned out that particular tree was growing at a point where we later determined two ley lines crossed. 

I'd be curious whether your tree was also either on a single ley line or where two of these lines cross.

If you want to try to figure this out, we used two methods to dowse for ley lines in the class.  The first was to take two metal clothes hangers, cut and fashion them so they are both "L" shaped with a 90 degree angle and a longer and shorter end.  The shorter end should be about the length to grasp in your hand.  Then you get some straws and cut them to the shorter length.  You hold the straws with the shorter end of the coat hanger rod inserted in the straw.  This allows for the rod to  move freely back and forth.  Then you hold one in each hand about waist or shoulder length apart.  Whenever the two rods move to the center and cross each other, you've found a ley line.  This first method was best for finding the ley lines. 

To determine their direction of the lines, this second method worked better.  You can get a pendulum (pointy crystal at the end of a small chain) and take it to where you found the ley line.  Hold it over the line and eventually the pendulum will swing back and forth in a specific direction.  That is the direction of the lines.  Generally if the pendulum started going in circles that was a place where the ley lines crossed.

Then we mapped all the ley lines out on a piece of paper along with the natural features of the yard (like the trees).  And wouldn't you know it, the really active vibrating tree someone had identified in the listening to trees class was right on the point where two ley lines crossed.

@melmystery I will have to try this!  I'm not certain I have the talent for this (or the patience) but I also have a friend who is leaving education for a work from home job with Amazon who is better at this and she and I are going to start meeting at lunch every two weeks for a walk through the woods.