Tiny Trees!

A few actually have buds already forming. The Candaian Hemlocks and the Arrowwood are the smallest.

Now we say the long time family prayer whenever we plant anything...

"Okay, now grow...dammit!"

This has been a running family joke after my mother planted some Zucchinni one year, said that to the seeds, and even the neighbors were tired of the things by winter. Mega bumper crop. Zucchinni bread, pickles, canned, fried, sautee'd, in salads...it's amazing I still like them...

Trees!

My Arbor Day Foundation 10 free trees just arrived today! Well, I know what my weekend plans are now! (couldn't think of anything I'd rather be doing instead, that's for sure).
My wife and I are now proud "parents" of;
1 Arrowwood Viburnum
1 Bur Oak
2 Canadian Hemlock
1 Grey Dogwood
1 Northern Red Oak
1 River Birch
1 Sargent Crabapple
1 Tuliptree
1 Washington Hawthorn
Now comes the fun part of trying to figure out where to put ten treeson an eighth of an acre lot...

A gift to my wife

I'm a tricky 'ol Druid at times. I had a piece of Willow that was just screaming at me to use it for something. So, I made a wand for my wife out of it...making her think all along that I was crafting it for myself...lol...

It's hard to tell in the picture, but that's a band of silver spiraling along the shaft and terminating at the tip.

Now on to my next project...

I was asked some time ago to post some pics of my practice Ogham Staves...and I finally got around to it.

They're simply enscribed with a wood burner on birch discs that I purchased at the craft store. On the back is the english name of the tree, the Bricriu Number Ogham, the sound, the color, and the elemental association.

Perhaps one day I will gather woods from all the trees and construct a set, but these are good as a start for divination and a study aide.

" ...But Cormac shook the branch amongst them, and when they heard the soft sweet music of the branch they forgot ill care and sorrow and went forth to meet the youth, and he and they took their departure and were seen no more. Loud cries of weeping and mourning were made throughout Erin when this was known; but Cormac shook the branch so that there was no longer any grief or heaviness of heart upon any one."

From More Celtic Fairy Tales, collected by John Jacobs (originally published 1894).

The Craebh Ciuil, one of the three treasures of Cormac. The "apple branch", silver branch with it's tiny, musical, apples...

I figured I'd post a picture of my own "Apple Branch"