The Dreaming Tree

Wonder of wonders... Beneath her cloak of ice and sleek suspended glossy icicles, my living ash tree is sleeping peacefully. On the edge of her Lanark hill, she is dreaming slow dreams and gathering her energies for a springtime which seems a very long way off in the north at this time of year.

Last year, my tree was home to a family of chattering young vireos. Within her loving embrace on that rural hill are peacefully sleeping bloodroot, trout lilies, violets, trilliums, wild orchids and a vast host of other wildflowers too numerous to mention.

It's something I need to remember in this cold winter season - that after the long dark time comes a green and shining time of leaves, flowers, fragrance and birdsong. At this time of year, sometimes it seems as though springtime will never come, but our days are getting longer again, and springtime is already on its way.