Goodbye Old Friend

During a heavy storm, a mature deciduous tree can 'drink' a couple of hundred gallons of water, which is funnelled to its roots. This water is stored in the surrounding soil, to help the tree through future dry spells. Trees think ahead.

A single tree contains millions of calories in the form of sugar, cellulose, lignin (which helps to make the structure 'woody') and other carbohydrates. But to insects and birds, a tree isn't so much a grocery store as a guarded warehouse, because the food is surrounded by a thick protective wall of bark. Trees think about security.

Every day in summer, trees release about 29 tons of oxygen into the air per square mile of forest. A person breathes in nearly two pounds of oxygen each day, so that's the daily requirement for tens of thousands of people. Trees don't care about us — but we should care about them. Elms and pines use a different tactic. When an insect eats a leaf, electrical signals travel from the damaged area to the roots — just as human tissue sends pain signals along the nervous system.

It takes at least an hour for the roots to react and unleash the defences, by flowing bitter compounds into the leaf to send the attacker packing. But something even more amazing is also happening: the tree identifies the attacker by its saliva. Armed with this, the tree releases phero-mones to summon specific predators, to prey on the insects. For example, elms and pines call on parasitic wasps that lay their eggs inside leaf-eating caterpillars, condemning them to slow, painful deaths. Trees are prepared to wait for revenge.

The main reason humans cannot perceive how clever and complex they are is because we exist in such short time scales by comparison. There's a tree in Sweden for instance, a spruce, that is more than 9,500 years old. That's 115 times longer than the average human lifespan.

A tree's childhood lasts ten times as long as ours. Activities that take us moments — waking up or stretching our limbs, can last months for a tree.

It's hardly surprising that most of us see trees as practically inanimate, nothing more than objects. But the truth is very different. They are just as intensely alive as we are . . . and for much, much longer.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3792036/Do-trees-brains.html#ixzz4KPnCdEB6
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source DailyMail UK

Beautiful tree, majestic ash     

How you must have weathered

Storms, times and emotions

Did you miss the woman?

Who owned our house?

That you withered and died

Did something

Kill your spirit and your roots?

How I wish I could seen

You at your best

Though I did try to

Bring you back to life

I shall miss your shade

And the birds and animals you sheltered

But today I bid farewell

To your magnificent height

Strength and presence

May it comfort you that

A tree has been planted in your honour

Goodbye old friend 

Goodbye

©Sheilagh Lee September 16, 2016

Three Word Wednesday - Peace

 Prompts: 

Firm, adjective: hard, solid, unyielding, resistant; solidified, hardened, compacted, compressed, dense, stiff, rigid, frozen, set; secure, secured, stable, steady, strong, fixed, fast, set, taut, tight; immovable, irremovable, stationary, motionless; strong, vigorous, sturdy, forceful; resolute, determined, decided, resolved, steadfast; adamant, emphatic, insistent, single-minded, in earnest, wholehearted; unfaltering, unwavering, unflinching, unswerving, unbending; hardline, committed, dyed-in-the-wool; close, good, intimate, inseparable, dear, special, fast; constant, devoted, loving, faithful, long-standing, steady, steadfast, rock-steady; noun: company, business, concern, enterprise, organization, corporation, conglomerate, office, bureau, agency, consortium.

Grave, noun: burial site, gravesite, cemetery plot, tomb, sepulcher, vault, burial chamber, mausoleum, crypt; last resting place; adjective: serious, important, weighty, profound, significant, momentous; critical, acute, urgent, pressing; dire, terrible, awful, dreadful; solemn, serious, sober, unsmiling, grim, somber; severe, stern, dour.

Heated, adjective: warm, hot; thermal; vehement, passionate, impassioned, animated, spirited, lively, intense, fiery; angry, bitter, furious, fierce, stormy, tempestuous; excited, animated, inflamed, worked up, wound up, keyed up.

Peace 

I am firm

In my belief

Though people get heated

About different views

They can come together

To make the right change

In goodwill and harmony

If they only try

But if they cannot make change

Then find some calm

Because life is too short

To argue and moan

About what we cannot change

Let’s take some

Peace to the grave

And have serenity

Now

©Sheilagh Lee September 14, 2016

Forgiveness?

I tried to winnow out

Life

Abashed with ways to change the past

Blind

Because the past is what defines us

Good

Bad

How we cope with difficult things

Forgiveness

For ourselves and others transgressions

Survival

We cannot change the hurts

Forgiveness

But still the sufferings

Hurt

From those we love

Hide

Within our consciousness

Burning

Brightly in our dreams

Haunting

Forgiveness still on our lips

Forgetting

Not going to happen

Burning

Deep inside the cycle

Continues

Pretending that all is alright

Lingering

In consciousness burning bright

Hurting

Still hearing the words

Cutting

To my soul

Again

And 

Again
Time to forgive

©Sheilagh Lee August 31, 2016

Unfair

Another year

Another sigh

I miss you still

I often wonder

Why, why?

It’s so unfair

To miss my big sis

Year after year

And more unfair

That you can’t see

The children you left behind

Their children are so cute

One of them reminds me

Of all the good in you

But for now

I’ll look at her

And smile because

She’s a little part of you

Left behind

To remind us

You were here

And we loved you.
We do still!

Happy Birthday Debbie

©Sheilagh Lee August 29, 2016

Louisiana

Explore southwest Louisiana,

 A fertile swath of swamps,

Bayous and rolling plains

People friendly and kind

Step into a mixture of voices spoken

French with gliding vowels so honeyed

Zydeco music fuels the blood and sizzles the soul

Delighted your feet move unbidden

To button accordion, and fiddle guitar.

In Lafayette, the Blue Moon, honky-tonk in open air

Dance nightly, or eat of traditional Cajun,

Randol’s hall a giant pine dance floor,

For historical family experience step back in time,

To fifty eight years ago, La Poussiere Cajun Dancehall,

in Breaux Bridge, Saturday and Sunday nights,

Ages eight to eighty dance to the fiddle.

On Saturday morns they flock to Mamou,

Fred’s Lounge’s doors arrive before eight a.m.

Or pay the price of wedging through the door

To hear 18th century French songs

Dancing mandatory, no two-stepping allowed

Festivals four hundred throughout the year

In towns and cities in Louisiana

Fill the need for Cajun, zydeco, jazz, country, and blues.

The foods exotic “chaudin,” or stuffed pig’s stomach

Boudin sausages and Boudin balls, brown bag of cracklings

At the Best Stop market in Scott,

Olde Tyme Grocery has shrimp, catfish, barbecued ham, poultry,

But the po’boy stuffed with crunchy fried oysters is best

St. Martindale’s southeast of Layfette to St. John,

Tasty dark roux seafood gumbo with fried alligator entices will delight,

At Prejean’s restaurant tempts fried or grilled alligator

Gumbo, combining crab, shrimp and crawfish.

 Their signature dish catfish Prejean,

Battered, fried catfish slathered thick, spicy shellfish stew

Steve n Pat’s Bon Temps Grill allures

With pork chop stuffed with spicy, heavily smoked pork, and apples,

Terrific grilled shrimp with a Worcestershire-tinged cream sauce

Set over jalapeño-spiked grits is another culinary delight.

Daiquiris Supreme drive through is a tasters’ joy.

Two dozen varieties to choose

But no driving and drinking with one still

The night draws to a close

The moon wanes and sighs

Morning has come as the sun rises

Café Du Monde in New Orleans beckons 

Beignets and coffee for all day

As powdered sugar drips

From your fingertips

Bidden to your mouth

As you drink in the sounds

And bustle of New Orleans

Peace surrounds your soul

Life is slows to a even keel

In Louisiana you feel

Like a long lost relative

You've found home

©Sheilagh Lee August 4, 2016

Three Word Wednesday- Memories

Three Word Wednesday- Memories

Prompts: Fatal, adjective: deadly, lethal, mortal, death-dealing; terminal, incurable, untreatable, inoperable, malignant, disastrous, devastating, ruinous, catastrophic, calamitous, dire; costly.

Gaping, adjective: cavernous, yawning, wide, broad; vast, huge, enormous, immense, extensive.

Harmonious, adjective: tuneful, melodious, melodic, sweet-sounding, mellifluous, dulcet, lyrical; euphonious, euphonic, harmonic, polyphonic, friendly, amicable, cordial, amiable, congenial, easy, peaceful, peaceable, cooperative; compatible, sympathetic, united, attuned, in harmony, in rapport, in tune, in accord, of one mind, seeing eye to eye, congruous, coordinated, balanced, in proportion, compatible, well matched, well balanced.

Memories

Is it fatal?

This gaping hole

Where memories used to be

Of childhood recollections fading

Some memories so clear

Others have gone

To that black hole

Where recollections fade

Some to be resurrected

Only when someone

Close to you

Brings up that

Embarrassing moment you forgot

Yet life goes on so harmonious

Making new memories

But what of the old?

I’ll write down what I remember

Talk to those who are still here

And resurrect the past

With words I’ll paint

My memories engraining them

In my mind

Sharing them with my family

And other folk

They shall live on.

©Sheilagh Lee July 20, 2016

Three Word Wednesday- Secret life of a Comedian

Three Word Wednesday- Secret life of a Comedian

Three Word Wednesday Prompts: 

Carefree, adjective: she's nothing like her carefree mother: unworried, untroubled, blithe, airy, nonchalant, insouciant, happy-go-lucky, free and easy, easygoing, relaxed, mellow; informal laid-back, loosey-goosey.

Deadpan, adjective: blank, expressionless, inexpressive, impassive, inscrutable, poker-faced, straight-faced; stony, wooden, vacant, fixed, lifeless.

Ear-splitting, adjective: extremely loud. 

Carefree, adjective: she's nothing like her carefree mother: unworried, untroubled, blithe, airy, nonchalant, insouciant, happy-go-lucky, free and easy, easygoing, relaxed, mellow; informal laid-back, loosey-goosey.

Deadpan, adjective: blank, expressionless, inexpressive, impassive, inscrutable, poker-faced, straight-faced; stony, wooden, vacant, fixed, lifeless.

Ear-splitting, adjective: extremely loud.

Secret life of a Comedian

An easy manner

She seems carefree

A deadpan display

Of being happy

A job in plain sight

But when she gets home

She screams so long

An ear-splitting shriek

As she bemoans her life

Her job, her home

Tears flow from her eyes

A wall of emptiness

Overwhelms her

She tries to fight it

And succeeds

This time

She needs to be loved

So that she matters

She needs the spotlight

The jokes, the banter

To keep going

As she smiles

In private

She has the tears

Of a comedian

When no one’s around

©Sheilagh Lee July 13, 2016

The Streets of London

The Streets of London

The streets of London

Lined with trees

Foliage, bright green,

 To autumn vibrant colours

To the winter’s frost

The seasons change

But one constant remains

They are good people here

Caring individuals who speak-up

When others err

Speaking out against injustice

We want that warm small town

Feel of neighbourhood

Cars people commuting

From work shopping and home

People going about life

Most people wanting to answer

The call to neighbourliness

Arms opened

With friendliness

And acceptance

Wide to refugees

Far and wide

Young people, Old people

And in between

Welcoming and warm

We want new blood to make us

Bigger, brighter, better,

Than before

Only through understanding

Tolerance and learning

Can we be

The richest city in the world

Only through community

Can we achieve

The truest riches of

Peace and harmony

For the then streets of London

Will be paved with love.

©Sheilagh Lee June 27, 2016

Rose Moon ,Strawberry Moon

The Strawberry Moon occurs in the northern hemisphere on Monday the 20th of June 2016. The sun will rise at 4:45 a.m. and sunset will be at 10:34 p.m. but the moon turns on  June 20 at 7:02 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.  It's the longest day of the year and Summer Solstice. Both of these will not coincide again until June 21, 2062 so enjoy tonight.

Rose Moon, Strawberry Moon 

Strawberry moon

A deceptive name

For it's amber

In its colour

Hot Moon, Honey Moon 

Long Night Moon

A Rose Moon by any other name

For Summer Solstice

Seventeen hours of sunlight

Followed by bright lit sky

The sun super high

The moon super low

Coexisting in one sky

Fragments of light

Across the spectrum

Creating amber glow

Filling the sky

With warmth

Bringing a feeling

Of peace and love

Look up, enjoy

For the Strawberry Moon

Will not be again nigh

Coinciding with Summer Solstice

Until June 21, 2062

So seek out its warm and guiding light

Let go of all the inner fight

Hold on to the peacefulness 

Of the night

Embrace the energy 

Dance and rejoice 

Eat and be merry

In the waning hours

Of the moon

                                                     ©Sheilagh Lee June 19, 2016

Three Word Wednesday- Sassy

Three Word Wednesday- Sassy

 Prompts: 

Quick, adjective: fast, swift, rapid, speedy, high-speed, breakneck, expeditious, brisk, smart, hasty, hurried, cursory, perfunctory, desultory, superficial, summary; brief, short, fleeting, transient, transitory, short-lived, lightning, momentary, whirlwind, whistle-stop, sudden, instantaneous, immediate, instant, abrupt, precipitate, 4 she isn't quick enough to advance to the next level: intelligent, bright, clever, gifted, able, astute, quick-witted, sharp-witted, smart; observant, alert, sharp, perceptive.

Raw, adjective: uncooked, fresh, unprocessed, untreated, unrefined, crude, natural; unedited, undigested, unprepared, inexperienced, new, untrained, untried, untested, unseasoned; callow, immature, green, naïve, red, painful, tender; abraded, chafed, bleak, cold, chilly, bone-chilling, freezing, icy, icy-cold, wintry, bitter, biting, strong, intense, passionate, fervent, powerful, violent; undisguised, unconcealed, unrestrained, uninhibited, realistic, unembellished, unvarnished, brutal, harsh, gritty, graphic.

Sassy, adjective: lively, bold, and full of spirit; cheeky



The quick way he smiles

Melts my heart

Showing my raw emotions

Of desire and love

His eyes twinkle 

He says he loves

When I am sassy

And I flirt with him 

So I smile simper

And weave a spell

That keeps him by my side

Forever more.

©Sheilagh Lee June 15, 2016