Scarlet Oak

Fagaceae  Family - Scarlet Oak
"A Year With the Trees" - Tree Number 38
Quercus coccinea

The scarlet oak that dropped these leaves about a week ago, shares the same land I live on.  I watch and visit with this magnificent tree all year round.  The day these leaves fell, it was cold and windy.  I picked up these beautiful scarlet colored leaves and took this photo on white paper to be able to really see the scarlet color,  

I am so grateful for the trees I live beside.  To see the birds that visit the tree, to hear the wind in tree branches, to breath in the fresh air, to feel the leaves falling around me, and to touch the strong bark with my hands, these moments always bring me to the present moment.  Being present is what helps to keep me calm in what often seems a chaotic world filled with too much to do.  

Enjoy finding your own moments by a tree and embracing the time with all your senses.

My practice for the past 15 years has been to visit each of the 93 trees on this blog once per season. When I am with the tree, I am quiet and use all my senses.  Sight, hearing, smell, touch, and even tasting when possible..  These trees have become part of me; I have a love for trees that makes me who I am.  

My favorite visits with the trees include carrying my journal and writing about my time with the tree. Writing about the birds that were there with me and the tree, the weather, the leaves, the limbs, the fruits and anything I feel about the tree and anything I feel the tree communicating with me.  I might add a drawing of a leaf or the trunk or the fruit.  Anything goes. 

For the love of the trees,
Becky

Winter at the Botanical Gardens in Asheville, North Carolina 2025

I went to the Botanical Gardens yesterday with Brooke, my daughter, we had not been there since Hurricane Helene came through Asheville.  The Gardens were closed to visitors for months and this is the first time we observed the changes that happened when the storm came through.

We walked  to sycamore meadow and saw the magestic sycamore was down on the ground.  I felt shock and awe and sadness and hope all at once.  

I also felt grateful that the Botanical Gardens will leave the Sycamore tree where it lays.  This meadow was named for the cluster of sycamore trees in this area of the gardens.  This meadow is also the home of another special sycamore, the Moon tree, whose seeds flew to the moon and back aboard the Apollo spaceship.

The botanical gardens at asheville are currently working on preparing the fallen Sycamore tree so the visitors that come to the garden will be free to interact with the tree by touching and sitting on the fallen Sycamore tree. 

This is my page from my “A Year With the Trees” journal.  You can see where Brooke drew the outline of the trunk as it lays on the ground. 

If you get a chance go visit the beautiful Sycamore meadow at the botanical gardens of Asheviile.  

Peace,

Becky Priddy