Evening's Infinite Form

Out in the Woods today mid afternoon I made a new entrance trail to the North Central Woods. It probably won't be used much by folks other than me.. but it will be useful to access the eastern North Rim area and a view over the Woods in winter. I returned to the Woods at 5:15 and wandered in the SW gate with the sun setting. In winter the din of the traffic carries through the leafless trees and seems to fill the perimeter Woods .. too much. I retreated up the SW trail into the dense green ash and the lost elm.. nearer to the heart of the Woods.. quieter there.

With the light growing dim I looked up at the twilight sky and was struck by the silhouetted form of the trees around. Bent and curving elm with tangled masses of vines towards its crown, stout vertical hackberry and green ash. Each direction I looked against the sky there was a new picture puzzle mosaic of black silhouetted forms against the silver white twilight. You can see trees so much better at twilight.
In Oliver's Woods, mere 70 acres there is an infinity of form of tree canopy architecture.. all shaped by an unknown combination of genetic fixed characteristics - a species intrinsic form; and experiences of the tree as it grows.. competition for light, damage from ice, reaching for open space.. each species in its own different way. Marvelous to see and contemplate.

Leaving the Woods at 6 there was only the bright rim of sunset color in the west. The larger bur oak and other trees were darker, sharper, clearer - black against the last light in the sunset. I am sure if  I saw this view of the Woods more often I would see and discover more. I would know the Woods in a way that few do now.