Wordless Wednesday
Tag: habitat restoration
Another Greenbelt Adventure
When I learned that today’s Word Press Daily Prompt was “Record,” nothing came to my mind. Hours later, it occurred to me that I am recording the work my friends and I are doing in Seattle’s Greenbelt, in part by taking photographs!
From time to time during the last few weeks, I have been digging out a carpet that has been buried in the Greenbelt for decades. I discovered the carpet on a day I was trying to remove blackberry root balls and couldn’t get a shovel to go into the ground.
At that time, I scraped away some dirt and saw this.
When I removed more of the dirt, I found what was keeping me from digging. It is hard to tell from this photo, but what you are seeing is a dirty carpet.
Earlier in the day I had noticed this:
I had uncovered a scrub brush in the Greenbelt the day before, so when I first saw this piece of plastic I thought it might be another brush. After finding the buried carpet though, I realized that what I had thought might turn out to be bristles was actually part of the unraveling carpet.
The carpet was big and heavy. In some places it was three layers thick, so I didn’t know if I would be able to move it enough to free it from the roots, blackberries and ivy but I kept at it.
Yesterday, I finally succeeded in freeing the carpet and rolling it up.
It is too heavy for me to move so that will have to wait until there is a group of people who can take it away. Hopefully that will be tomorrow when a city work team comes to cut down more of the blackberry vines.
Moments after rolling up the carpeting, this caught my eye.
That will have to be a project for a different day!
Weekly Photo Challenge: Chaos
Nature’s Beauty: Fungi
I also found this beautiful fungi in the Greenbelt yesterday:
Good Morning to You!
In the early to mid 90’s, I wrote a fun devotional song that my son told me sounded like a sea chantey. Years later, one line from that song would often come into my mind when I went on morning walks. At that point, though, the lyrics were different. They became “Good morning to you, good morning to you, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning, good morning to you.” I would sing the ditty to the plants and trees I encountered on my walk.
Thursday night, we had a big rain and wind storm in Seattle. On Friday morning I went outside to see how the trees fared. I found myself singing that song to each tree along my way.
First I visited the trees in my back yard:
Maple tree, good morning to you!
Holly tree, good morning to you!
Magnolia tree, good morning to you!
Juniper trees, good morning to you!
Blue Spruce, good morning to you!
Next, I walked down to the Greenbelt lot where we’ve been rescuing the trees from blackberry vines and ivy. I was eager to check out what had happened there during the storm. I could tell everything was fine, but it was still windy so I didn’t go as close to those trees as I would have normally. I didn’t want to take any chance that a dead branch would drop on my head.
Cherry trees, good morning to you!
Cedar trees, good morning to you!
Buddleia, good morning to you!
I look forward to seeing who you become now that you are freed from the blackberries. I also look forward to seeing if butterflies flock to your blooms.
Hawthorne tree, good morning to you!
I look forward to seeing what happens now that you have a chance to thrive.
And last but not least, beautiful Alder, good morning to you!
I thoroughly enjoyed my morning visit to each of these trees. Maybe this will become a daily ritual for me!
I wish each of you who read this post a very good morning, no matter what time of day it is in your part of the world.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Quest
Throughout Seattle, there are groups of people working to remove blackberry vines, morning glories and ivy from parks and Greenbelts. The empty lot that is behind my house is in of one of the Greenbelts. During the last three decades, the invasive plants have completely taken over the once beautiful land. So many trees have died.
There have been times in the past where I cleared parts of the lot, but since I can’t take out all of the roots, they, of course, always come back. Lately removing the blackberry vines and other invasives from the lot has become a passion for me. A friend and I have worked many hours cutting them down.
This is my favorite tree on that property. (It is actually two different trees, and each one of them split into two trunks so there are actually four trunks, but I still see them all as one tree.)
One of my first priorities was to remove the blackberry vines and ivy from that tree. I have done that enough times over the years that was a fairly easy goal for me to accomplish. For the first time, however, I noticed that there was a branch on the north side of the tree that was so long that it disappeared into the blackberries. I resolved to free the branch.
But how would I even get to it? There was no easy course.
I planned my route to the buried branch and committed to free it the next day.
Early Sunday morning, I set out to accomplish my goal. First, I went to the storage shed to pick up the tools I needed.
As I started to open the shed door, I walked face first into a big spider web. Yuck. I backed up to see where the spider was. What I saw was a yard spider that was bigger than any I’ve ever seen before.
I had been looking for a subject for the Weekly Photo Challenge: Quest. The moment I came face to face with that spider was the moment that I knew I had my subject for the photo story. Freeing this tree branch was indeed going to be a Quest.
I picked up my tools and then headed towards the stairs that go to the lower lot.
Shortly thereafter, I again walked into an unseen spider.
Okay, it is time for me to get conscious.
- Pay attention to what I’m doing.
- Carry the hedge shears downward.
- Watch where I’m walking so I don’t slide on the uneven ground as I walk down the hill.
- Don’t step in a hole.
- Make sure I have my phone safely stored in case I need help.
I inched my way down the hill, drawing ever closer to the tree. As I descended, I appreciated how much clearing we have already done.
Cutting a path through the blackberry vines, I drew closer and closer to my destination. It wasn’t just a matter of cutting down the upper layer of blackberries. If I opened a hole in the mass, I could see that many of the old ones were in layers three feet deep. I had to be careful not to accidentally put my foot into a drop off.
Finally, I got close enough to the branch that I could begin cutting the vines that were holding it down.
I worked diligently, oblivious of the time.
I was excited to see that there were many signs of life on the smaller branches that were offshoots of the larger one.
When I thought I had freed it, I discovered that there was still one part was still trapped. I couldn’t even see where it ended. It occurred to me that none of the other branches on the tree were anywhere near that long, so I decided to cut it just under the areas of growth.
When I made the cut, the branch rose ten to twelve feet into the air.
Free, free at last!
Mission accomplished. As I started to leave the area, I saw so many other trees that need to be liberated from the blackberries. I recommitted to come back and do more of that work, but this quest was enough for one day.
Time to go home.
Before I knew it, I was nearing my back deck.
My quest was complete and it was time for me to have a well deserved rest.
I Love Synchronicity!
A few days before I left for India last year, I found out my friend Prakash was going to be taking the same flight I was on. Six weeks later, I discovered he would be on my return flight as well. That might seem like no big deal, but the reality is I had purchased my tickets for the November 28 to January 11 flights in August, and Prakash’s tickets were booked at the last minute due to family emergencies. He had planned to return to the U.S. after Christmas. As my departure date approached, I had no idea he was still in India. (And he did not know my itinerary.) To make it even stranger, we had ended up on the same flight earlier in the year. There is NO way all of these shared flights could have been chance.
Two weeks ago, I experienced some other synchronicities. I will give you two pieces of backstory before I share those. 1) The Challenge for Growth prompt for that week had been “I Unplug.” I had made the commitment to unplug my computer, phone, television and radio between 9 a.m. and noon each day. 2) I was arranging to place an ad for our local GreenFriends group and had decided to take Tree Planting and Habitat Restoration off of the ad temporarily, since our group hadn’t engaged in that particular activity for more than a year.
On Saturday, February 20, I chose to walk the Cheasty loop (a circular path that starts and ends near my house) during my unplugged time. When I came back from the walk, I would arrange for the changes in the ad. I hadn’t taken that walk for at least two years, because, for a variety of reasons, I hadn’t had the stamina I needed to do it. That day though, I felt full of energy!
About five minutes into my walk, I looked ahead of me and saw a canopied booth. There was a sign on it that read “Cheasty.org.” When I reached the booth, I talked to the people who were standing there. I learned they were a local group who are working to clear out the invasive plants in the Cheasty Greenspace. Once they remove the blackberries, ivy and other invasive species, they plant trees in the new space. The group was in the middle of a work party at that time.
I couldn’t see anything from the road, so one of the leaders, Joel, guided me to the work area.
Joel said they had work parties in this area the third Saturday of every month. He said they also held work parties on the first weekend of each month, in an area a few blocks south of the one where we were standing. When I told him about our local GreenFriends group, he said he would love to have us join their work parties.
After saying goodbye, I continued my walk. I passed an area where Seattle city workers were converting wood into wood chips. A lot of those chips are used by the Cheasty.org group.
Not far from there, I saw the place where the Cheasty group had been working for much longer. As you look at the pictures, keep in mind that all of these fields were covered with blackberry vines not long ago. The area had completely transformed since the last time I walked this loop.
I continued on, picking up litter as I walked. When I arrived back at my house, I discovered I had been gone for two hours! It was not lost on me that this experience would not have happened if I had not been participating in the “I Unplug” challenge. And I chose to unplug on the same day and at the same time that the Cheasty.org group was working in the area I was walking. In addition, all of this had occurred shortly after I had made the decision to remove Tree Planting and Habitat Restoration from the ad. Needless to say, I left it in.
I LOVE SYNCHRONICITY!
Living, Learning and Letting Go 