Today I put the hammock up, but it has not stopped the rain from falling. We hang it between two trees behind the house. The larger of the two is our largest walnut tree. Although we take the hammock inside during the winter it is impossible to take the rope in because the tree has grown around and incorporated it so a little ingenuity is needed to string it the right way so that the hammock hangs nicely. Lying in the hammock (between showers) one can look up through the leaves at the sky beyond. The sky, between piles of cumulus cloud, has been a particularly deep blue today contrasting sharply with the walnut leaves which are still quite pale green. . Actually it is especially beautiful after rain because of all the glitter of silver on the wet leaves. A magnificent old tree like that is quite majestic. The trunk is gnarled and twisted and there are great boughs reaching out in several directions. There evidently have been others in the past, now gone or replaced. You can see the scars on the heavy trunk. I find looking at trees to be a fine meditation - life in slow motion. Half of the tree is visible, penetrating the sky and half is hidden under the ground, each half seeking different kinds of nourishment in order to feed each other - an interesting way of life - and the tree supports so many other living things. I read once that an oak tree may have as many as a hundred other species living in or on it. I wonder how many there are in this great walnut. Well, those were some of the things going through my head as I passed my siesta, swaying gently.
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