DAY 11
04.15.07
TREE 12All day I kept putting off climbing a tree. I got back from my parents’, unloaded the truck, and it was already past 10PM. So I walked down the field towards the lake. I found a dying fire in the pit. I walked around hoping for a tree near by, out in the open to climb. There was a pair of pretty little trees that were already full of leaves. I chose the tree closest to the lake and climbed. I found myself in the treetop holding on to skinny branches that easily swayed under my weight. Yet all the fear I had of being out alone in the dark faded. I felt comfortable and very hidden. I climbed down using my sense of touch and not very much sight. I walked back to the fire, got it going again, and then laid on a bench and looked up at the dark grey clouds with black splotches in between. I let my thoughts roam and found myself thinking about how much I am appreciating this experience here at MACA. A very wonderful warm night.
4-15-08: The image of the tree above is in daylight because I snapped the photo the following day. I did not start taking night photos until later in the project. On some climbs I didn’t even have my camera on me. I would climb and then sometime during the next day go back to the tree to take a picture of it. My night shots are some of my favorite… but you’ll have to wait a while for those.
The turn back to colder weather is not welcome. I slept in yesterday then fell asleep twice reading in the afternoon. I finally forced myself to go outside after dinner. As I sat and ate my pizza with my dad I spotted a tree in the back yard that I wanted to try. It’s a young tree with few limbs that has a severe kink in the trunk about twenty feet up. I chose this because I knew I would have to shimmy all the way to the kink and would be the longest distance I have yet done in that manner. I also decided to not video the experience but rather take the camera up with me. This gave the climb a similar feeling to the first 365 days of my project. Almost as if I needed the comfort of the familiar. But then as I took pictures and looked at my boring and tired results I realized why I started making videos in the first place. I needed change. But I won’t keep the images from you. Here are two; an image down the trunk and another out into the tree tops. The black spots are the resting turkey buzzards.
Happy Tax Day!!!
TS
Climbing a tree everyday
