DAY 11

DAY 11
04.15.07
TREE 12

All 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