I spent most of yesterday, the fourth of July, feeling absolutely rotten with a bad headache and an upset stomach. I did it to myself, almost mostly sorta on purpose. I knew it was hot, I knew that my physical condition was such that I couldn’t do much in the way of exertion without paying the price, but there was somewhere I wanted to go, and something I wanted to see. And I went.
And what did I want to see? A tree. Seriously. I thought going and seeing a tree was worth having a killer headache for the rest of the day and throwing up and everything. (Okay, actually the throwing up surprised me, I don’t usually get that queasy.)
Last winter while crossing the bridge over a creek that I use as my turn around point for my daily walks, I noticed a sycamore tree. It had a thick brown trunk that went up a ways and then divided into several white trunks, so the shape was unusual and distinctive, and it looked to be a pretty big tree too. I started calling it Old Man Sycamore. But I had only ever seen it from the bridge, never close up.
This is what I could see of Old Man Sycamore in winter.
Even in winter the view wasn’t that great. Too many other trees and shrubs in the way.
Yesterday I went out walking with the kids, first thing in the morning, and I wanted to point Old Man Sycamore out to the kids, but you couldn’t hardly even see him through the leaves. (Which explains why it had taken me ten years to notice him in the first place, I guess. That, and the fact that I usually take my daily walks after the sun goes down.)
So I said… “I’ve always wanted to visit him in person anyway…” And after wibbling a bit about how you’re not supposed to leave the path and all that, and whether or not this was a good idea at all considering my current state of wimplessness, I said. “That’s it. We are going to go see this tree.”
So the kids and I tramped off the bridge and around the guard rails (which extend quite a distance on either side of the bridge), and down the bush covered slope, and through the woods, and across the creek, and finally arrived at this tree that I had wanted to visit.
And my son said, “Heeellooo, Grandpa!”
Let’s just say it is by far the largest tree I’ve seen around here. 🙂
I’ll post pictures as soon as I have acquired a way to get them out of my camera. Its USB connector isn’t working.
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