Larch

Well, our move to Gloucestershire didn't happen. It seems that change was in the offing though... Steve changed jobs, I'd already given my notice & trained my replacement... then we hitched up our caravan and re-sited our home the weekend before last. Still in North Yorkshire, only 10 minutes down the road but the surroundings are much different... flatter, more open... bigger skies somehow... a river not far away and a wider variety of trees.

Already more than content with what was around me, I found these....

Larch flowers! I didn't know... I can't believe I've not seen them before, there are plenty of larch in the woodlands i have walked. Maybe I've not been there at this time of year, or maybe it's a case of not seeing the wood for the trees!

The larch is a pine, but is deciduous... it would have been good to watch the needles grow, but never mind, there are still some tiny tufts just sprouting to keep an eye on! Hopefully we will be here long enough to watch these gorgeous female flowers mature into cones....

This one looks like one of last years, but they can stay on the tree for a few years, getting greyer as they age (sounds familiar, i guess they mature into crones!)

I love the way the branches fall & there is something about the silhouette of these trees...

I keep going back to look at these photographs and find myself sinking into meditation as I do... if you haven't already, click on this last picture to enlarge, then just gaze at the flower.... it is tenderness unfurling... have you done it yet? did you feel your heart chakra expand? did you feel an all- encompassing tenderness? did you stay and let that tenderness spread throughout your body? did you connect to the heartbeat of the earth?

You might feel like trying the same thing with the first picture... I notice a distinct difference, maybe because of the sky in the background which has an ethereal quality, but the feeling is more expansive, it naturally spreads out beyond me... from my crown as well as my heart.... follow the heartbeat... let tenderness spread throughout the world... wave upon wave... emanating from the spiral of the larch flower... connected to the spiral of life... to the heartbeat of the world...