Friday, Lynne and I had lunch at Beck’s (great name) on Westheimer. The burgers, steak sandwiches, and fries are good, but the food isn’t really why we go there. We go when we need tree energy.
You may recall from this post* that I have a thing for live oaks. Or you may have guessed as much from the way live oak history and trivia found its way into THREE FORTUNES IN ONE COOKIE. I think they are just fantastic trees, and we visited a couple of them today at Beck’s. I took some photos that I’ll put behind a cut.
Houston’s largest tree.
In the bottom left corner, you can spot a squirrel.
He was having quite a good time with either an acorn he found
or a nut he was given.
A companion oak on the other end of the deck.
Though it was drizzling the entire time we were there, the rain barely touched us thanks to these two old sentinels who, by reaching out to each other, provide a shelter for all of those who visit them.
Shawn Lea provided information on Everything and Nothing back in mid September that did my heart good. So many live oaks were destroyed along the Mississippi Gulf Coast by Hurricane Katrina, but now chainsaw artist Dayton Scoggins is turning those tree stumps into art. If you check out jaseo’s photo stream on flickr.com, you can see some of the reclaimed stumps, like this one:
There’s a poem in the front of WHEN YOU DON’T SEE ME that’s about transforming tragedy into art. Thanks, Shawn, for making me aware that something is being created from what remains of these noble old trees.
*Some of the photos in my May 30, 2006, post are no longer available online. If you want to see how Friendship (the tree) looked before Katrina, just after Katrina, and more recently, search “Friendship Oak” on flickr.com and you should get a good variety of photos. He’s looking much greener these days.
A lot of trees were crushed in a bad storm in Orangeville, Ontario, where my mother and sister live, a year or three ago, and they did the same thing. Here and there throughout the city, are stump art objects. It’s really charming, and a great idea…
Majestic. I love the trees so much in these photos. It’s been a long time since I have seen trees like those.
The art is wonderful, too. It’s really great to know that someone can take something that people tend to forget about and make it into something that people talk about all the time. He’s able to transform the dead into something living. What a talent.
I haven’t done what used to be one of my favorite things in the world to do since Katrina–drive down St. Charles Avenue heading uptown at night. While we didn’t lose a majority of the trees, we lost enough to be heartbreaking.
Ah, the deck at Beck’s. I had one of my most embarassing moments on that deck.
Back in the day, I wore heels to work, and I worked in the Marathon Oil Tower. Some coworkers and I had gone to lunch at Becks. As I was walking toward a table, one of my heels became stuck between two of the boards on the deck. I stepped backward with my left foot, planning to use some leverage to free my right shoe. Instead, in a pure Lucy and Ethel moment, I wound up with the heel of my left shoe soundly stuck between two other boards. I did what any normal person would do. I stepped out of both pumps, bent over, picked up my shoes and pleaded with my coworkers to choose a table where I could hide my shame.
A girl in my high school had that happen with a floor vent for the central air unit. It was hilarious.
400 years old! Amazing I notice all the lower branches are well braced. The old maple that shaded my entire house from the afternoon sun was estimated at 150 when we were forced to bring her down. Some kind of borers infested the trunk, and made weight of the tree a hazard. You needed two people to encircle it. I also had to put in central air once the shade was gone. I wish I had left the stump in for an artist to carve.
Since I am a firm believer in trees there is still a 20′ x 20′ Colorado spruce I grew from a seedling, two 15′ red cedars my mother nurtured after they sprouted from cedar bark mulch and two maples that are just reaching shade quality in the back.
I definitely have to do that tour of the old homes behind the Liongates for you as soon as the leaves start turning.
those trees are absolutely beautiful – thanks for posting the pictures. 🙂
You’re welcome. =)
Do you know about my obsession with trees? I LOVE this post. That is an awesome tree… not to mention, awesome pictures of it.
Check out the ten most magnificent trees in the world:
http://www.neatorama.com/2007/03/21/10-most-magnificent-trees-in-the-world/
I hope to go visit every one of them before I die. 😉
That was a fun journey to trees. I love the coastal redwoods so, so much.
WOW, Becky!!
Wonderful photos!
How can some folks be so blind to the need for Tree energy in their lives.
It is so sad when trees go down, but I must admit that when Mother Nature flattens them in a Hurricane, Tornado, Mudslide, what have you, it saddens me but doesn’t destroy me the way it does when man attacks them with a chainsaw, a bulldozer, etc…It’s so hard to see those ancient beauties go down, yet, I guess it’s Nature’s cycle. We humans and our short lives have a hard time with it. At least I do.
Thanks for the photos and letting me ramble about trees my dear.
You are welcome, and feel free to ramble all you want. I always think of you now when I’m out appreciating the beauty of trees.