Mild winter days

 Out to the Woods many times these past several days. I love watching how it changes. When the overhead canopy of leaves goes, I enjoy seeing what remains green and still able to carry on photosynthesis, still able to grow. 

List from this past few days: Acer Box Elder (green twigs), Allium Wild Chives (abundant in alluvial soil by wash), Carex Sedge, Cocculus Snailseed vine, Elaeagnus Autumn olive shrubs, Euonymus Strawberry bush/ Spindle trees two species vine and shrub, Geum Avens, Glechoma Creeping Charlie (abundant mixed with chickweed), Hedera English ivy, Ilex Holly,  Juniperus Eastern redcedar trees, Ligustrum Privet shrubs, Lonicera japonica Japanese honeysuckle vines, Lonicera maacki Amur honeysuckle shrubs, Lonicera fragrantissima honeysuckle shrubs, Smilax Greenbriers two species, Stellaria Chickweed (this covers the top quarter of the 12 acre sand dune), Symphoricarpos Coralberry, various moss species, ferns two species Asplenium? and Polypodium? 

.. and a few more:

Clematis, Virgin's bower vine (by Oak Bridge), Liriope Monkey grass, Nandina Heavenly bamboo, Rosa Wild rose (stem), Sambucus Elderberry, Viola violets, some unknown spp of grass and an unknown green herb with oval leaves.

I have enjoyed thinking about immortal trees, willows, oaks, mulberries and others that are pushed over with strong winds, falling far enough over to touch the ground, and root from there, or send up new suckers from the base of the tree. The new shoots can go on to become another full-sized tree (and then repeat the process),  regrowing continuously from the same tree. As long as the roots survive with enough stored starch to produce new shoots, these trees could go on and on. I wonder if there are any really old trees in these Woods.

The Pleurotus oyster mushrooms I noticed and enjoyed on the willows in mid November are gone now, chewed into lace like remnants that mark their former location. Happily, other oysters continue to put up fresh new mushrooms - these from large fallen pecan trees. Daughter Sarah gathered a basket and fried them up fresh with butter. 

And thinking about trees as metronomes for earthquakes or tremors. On Dec 15 at 11:59 CST I was sitting on a long, tilted bur oak stump, fifteen feet from the root ball to the end, when I felt a small shake in my seat. I wondered if the tree could be serving as an amplifier of subtle shaking of the ground from a small local earthquake tremor. At that instant there was also a roaring heavy truck just accelerating up Chautauqua and I thought maybe it was just a little ground shaking from the truck 50 feet away. But then there was a second small shake with no truck. Today I checked a record of local seismic activity and found that there had been small tremors that day in the same Cleveland county. Left me thinking about new forces I had not considered, acting on the many leaning trees in the Woods. Foresters have occasionally remarked on large leaning trees that suddenly crash for no apparent reason, no wind, no rain. I wonder if small tremors (< 1-2 on Richter scale) could explain many of these.

Always something new in the Woods. I am going there now to see what I find.