Ash & Elm...Black Buds, Red Flowers

The Elm buds have broken open & flowered over this last week... gorgeous little balls of red flowers, bursting out of oval black buds.

Elm

It's funny how your awareness changes as life goes on... There was a line of huge elm trees along the riverside where I lived as a teenager, sadly they were felled due to Dutch Elm disease in the '80's. I used to spend a great deal of time around them, so I can hardly believe I didn't see the buds & flowers develop... but maybe they didn't register in the same way, or maybe more pressing thoughts meant that the memory of them eludes me. I remember my granddad showing me their leaves when I was little, and comparing them to the beech & alder, to show me their differences... I really don't know if he ever pointed out the flowers... 

On the other hand, there are all sorts of things I know about, but have no recollection of how or where I learnt, but they seem sufficiently important that I should remember. Fascinating things aren't they... our brain, memory & power of recall! It's fascinating to me that some innocuous event or conversation sticks in the memory...  others are elusive, but the knowledge gained remains. Or is it more a case of certain things being lodged in the recall tapes of our mind? You know... the same old tales that are continually recounted, events that never fail to be brought up in certain lines of conversation with people who share our lives.

Another thing I remember Granddad explaining was that you don't forget something... everything is there, stored in your brain. It's just the power of recall that is sometimes the problem! 

The black buds and red flowers brought the ash tree to mind, I'd never really thought of these similarities.  

Ash 

 When people access a past life memory... or perhaps a memory of their ancestors, maybe it's similar to the way we recall certain things from our life-time... certain events are replayed clearly in our mind, others we just know, others just seem to be forgotten. Because its all there, stored somewhere, everything we have ever done, seen, learned.... conscious & unconscious... the problem is our power of re-call...

Some people seem to remember loads of detail & specific events in their lives, others don't... I don't. Is it a problem? Sometimes it could be... sometimes memories are blocked due to some trauma emotional dys-funtion, sometimes those repeated recalls may point to underlying issues, some are due to impairment of brain function etc...but not always, it depends what they are & on the person. 

But, like the buds & flowers of these two trees, we may share similarities with others but we are distinct individuals. This life may share similarities with another, but it is a different life. We may be rooted in different places, but we share the same earth & sky, are nourished & affected by the same elements... perhaps in different ways, but we share....

Ash Keys Turning

I’ve watched these keys turn…. keys turning… keys… what is a key? A clue… to open a door…. holding a seed?

12th Sept- leaves are still very green, but the first ash keys are starting to change colour

Questions have floated into my mind….What does a key mean to you? Is it a clue of what to do or where to go... will it open the door to secrets you hold… the door of wisdom & inner knowing… will it turn the lock to intuition, the way to live with clarity… does it hold a seed of future growth, a seed of hope & harmony? 

27th Sept- all the keys are now a lovely golden colour

Keys have wings to carry them to places to grow… fertile soil… is your mind a fertile place? open to ideas & thoughts & growth? Have your ideas got wings to carry them along?

11th Oct- golden keys have turned to russet~ the leaves are starting to pale...

Take the keys..open those doors to your potential... sow the seeds, open your mind, begin to grow… unlock the wisdom its yours to find… fly on the wings of opportunity, find the ground where you can grow… keys to your dreams ...seeds of vision… of harmony….

25th Oct- within a fortnight the leaves are almost totally shed~ the keys a copper clour

What do you see? What do you feel? ...as you share the journey of these precious seeds... nurtured in the keys of the ash tree?

7th Nov- leaves are gone, just the keys hang on. they will stay until next year, not dropping until after the new growth of leaves & the next clutch of seeds begin to form.

7th Nov- 

Cold silence after the winds….Ash keys whisper to the moon… She answers on the breeze… with a vision of hope & harmony...

Two Months in the Life of an Ash Tree

The Ash trees have finally decided to burst out around here... well after the oak trees, so according to weather lore it shouldn't be a wet summer.. "if the ash be out before the oak, we're in for a soak; if the oak be out before the ash, we shall only have a splash"

It's taken about 2 months for the buds to grow into leaf. Here we are on 21st March...those black buds make the ash tree easily identifiable even without leaves.

Have you ever noticed ash flowers? By 13th April they were out....

...growing nicely by the 25th....
...by 1st May the flowers are gone, seeds beginning to form & the first leaves break out...

...last years seeds ('keys') are still on the tree. Some have fallen, but many remain until after the leaves come out...

...9th May, seeds are forming the familiar ash-keys that help them become airborne to spread themselves away from the parent tree to begin life on their own (does this sound like our own children?)...

...17th May, see how much they've sprouted!...

...24th May, leaves are lush & filling out nicely....
I sit on the fence under this tree regularly, leaning back against the trunk, looking out through the branches...
... today the words that floated in were... peace... initiation... initiating peace... I think that's the way we need to move forward through peaceful initiation of ideas rather than confrontation.