This photo was taken close to the summer solstice in the early morning, just off Western Trail (#9) not far from Fortune Lake. I’d been in here a few times in the early evening sitting and watching a very active beaver –on top of his lodge doing repairs, and then entertaining me by swimming circles. Today’s visit was in the early morning and it looked quite different. I was quite disappointed that my beaver was nowhere to be seen, and that the colours in the marsh were so drab. Eventually I turned my gaze around to the other end of the marsh and saw this tree for the first time. I hadn’t noticed it before: the evening light on my earlier visits simply didn’t highlight it so if I had noticed it on previous visits I likely concluded there was nothing remarkable about it. But today the early morning light skimming the tops of the trees caused it to glow, and its odd shape standing all alone against background of glorious early summer green foliage attracted my eye. One of my teachers has a saying: “There’s always something miraculous here, you just have to be here when it occurs”.
I’m sharing a second photo of this same tree, which I think has become my preferred perspective.
