I went for a walk, with Fate and Zinnia in our neighbors woods today. I wanted to see if the skunk cabbage was coming up in the swamp.
It was too early for the Skunk Cabbage, but we did smell a skunk near the shallow pond where I took our shadow portrait.
We hadn’t been on that path for a while and the wind took down some trees since we were last there.
Fate was sniffing the massive pine branch that lay on the side of the path. It broke where the tree forked and a squirrels nest was nestled. The nest was still high in the tree, but the splintered pine on the ground was dripping with sap.
I crouched down to smell it too. Looking inside the broken pine was like peering into a cave decorated with hundreds of miniature crystal drops from a chandelier.
The skunk cabbage may not be sprouting yet, but the moss is. The decaying tree trunks were blooming bright green with hints of red. One stump even had five small white mushrooms that looked like scallop shell umbrellas.
Your photo of the dripping sap is incredible! Beautiful, mysterious, mesmerizing, spiritual…I spent some time today hauling blown down limbs and branches from our white pine trees to our woodpile and embarrassingly admit I was silently cursing the sticky sap that I got all over my hands, hair, jacket. Your image will change my perspective from this point forward! I’ll bless and appreciate the awesome beauty of the trees lifeblood…in all its forms, wherever it may show up! Beautiful Maria!
Oh but I can so understand how you might be cursing it when it is stuck all over your hands and clothes Kathye! But it really is a lifeblood. A beautiful way to experience it.