Nature Has a Way With Wonder

I work in a tiny, windowless office, which is inside a large windowless room, which is inside another large windowless room. So, during the day, I don't see much of this fine spring weather we're having...of course it might not be fine today, because it was dreary and rainy when I came in, and I haven't had a look at the outside world for a few hours now...but that's not what I wanted to tell you about...

What I wanted to tell you about is some of the really neat stuff I saw this week, when I was able to get out of these ugly boxes and into the world around me.

I went to lunch with my adopted little brother earlier this week, and while driving down the road I happened to glance over at an unplanted field. Strutting around in this field was a large crow. He was bobbing his head and looked a bit nervous. He had a rather large... something... looked like a tennis ball...on his beak. I don't mean in his beak; I mean on it, like he'd pecked at it and got stuck. I laughed out loud, and my friend just looked at me in the way he often does, when he thinks I've gone round the bend again. You see, he was lost in contemplation and didn't see what I had seen. So this was weird happening number one, for this week. Yet, alas! I didn't think to stop and photograph this, so I have no proof other than my word.

You'd think that would've been enough strange/unusual stuff to color this week, but no...there's more. Another day and another lunchtime, we were driving down by the river, and as we sped down the road I looked over at the river, gently flowing, and I saw another strange bird. I call it a 'Jesus' bird, because it appeared to be standing/walking on water. It was not a duck or a goose, of this I'm sure. It was just a medium sized, black bird, relatively nondescript, except for the fact that it seemed to be standing afloat on the Susquehanna. Alas! Again no photos. And my friend didn't see this one either...But it was there. Honest... So now, that's two.

Story of my life...it's full of strange birds that only I see.

Now you'd think two weird things would have ended it for the week, but no, there's more.

Another day, we were down at Fort Hunter, wandering around by the river. We had a camera this time. It was bright and beautiful. The birds were doing their nest building, and the butterflies were out doing their things, and it was a nice day to just...be. We took a little stroll by the river there, taking it all in, and we saw a couple of unusual trees.

The first was a rather smallish tree down by the shore which looked like it might have been bulkier if it's trunk hadn't branched out in three places near the ground. Rather than growing as one, the trunk split three ways early on, and so it ended up as some kind of triplet tree, seemingly three trunks growing out of one set of roots. Two of the trunks grew so closely together that they've physically bonded together in places. So....That's three...take a look.




We walked on a bit and on our way back to the truck, we chanced upon an awesome sycamore...yep, another one. Now this one had some true character. It's trunk was split almost exactly down the middle, yet you could tell it started as one tree. The split was deeper on one side than the other, and on the side of the deeper split, you could see that the inside of the lower trunk was hollow. The hollow space is big enough to fit a small body, and from the looks of it, would provide nice shelter for some critter or another when the wind blows cold. A vine grows up the inside of this trunk, and on up through the tall bare branches. I find it amazing that a tree like this can be hollowed out and still thrive and grow. You'd think it would have rotted and fallen by now. It must have some really strong and healthy roots that keep it going, regardless of its hollowness. Come to think of it, I guess maybe that applies to alot of things, even people. (Uh-oh! My inner druid is showing.)



And if this awesome tree wasn't enough to top off an interesting week, later that same day, I saw a full rainbow, meaning both ends. And then, while I was watching, it became a double rainbow. Unfortunately, I only have a picture of the primary one, and it didn't turn out well, but at least it's proof that it was really there.