Taking in Life Around Me....#SundayStills...Theme: Leaves and Trees

This #sundaystills challenge is hosted by Terrie from Second Wind Leisure. I've also been loving visiting the blogs of the other participants and being inspired by their interpretations of the theme.

This weeks theme is leaves and trees. I am fascinated by nature and especially unique species of trees, flowers, plants, animals. I love it all. So here are some I found, mostly in my archives. I so badly want to take time to photograph current things but it's so hard to find the extra time with working outside of home, online work and just life. Ugghh. I need to take advantage of even a few hours on weekends. We live in a small town, so if I want to go anywhere else it's almost always a 20-30+ minute drive one way. 

A few years ago I went to Palm Springs with my hubby for a work conference. These trees were pretty cool. 

The photo above and below were taken in Florida. I love when moss covers trees. I had also found a tree (but lost the photo, probably deleted it) with what looked like an "air plant" hanging from it. Someone who saw it said that was exactly what it was. So fascinating. 

I love the crunch of leaves in my hands and beneath my feet. I took this photo to promote these bracelets from Nature Backs. My daughter is a rep and with each order you get a Flip Trip Bracelet. If you are interested, her code is NBrepkristianna. I love their shirts. 

We live in a typically wet area and one thing we find is a lot of ferns and moss growing off the trees in the woods. I think they are beautiful. 

This tree in Rockaway beach Oregon is 154 feet tall and 49 feet around. It's amazing, and whats cool when you look up, is seeing "trees" growing from this one. It's such a cool tree. It's part of some cedars wetlands and they've done a great job creating beautiful boardwalks throughout. We visited it twice on our trip in 2020 to the beach with friends. Here's a little ariticle about it. I thought I blogged about it, but maybe not. 

Fall colors are by far my favorite. I love trees all year, but fall is my favorite because they really show off their colors. 

This tree is on the property of my aunts vineyard on Kelley's Island Ohio. The name is Crooked Tree Vineyard (you can somewhat see that the tree is crooked). The wind chime hanging from it, belonged to my mom and was given to my aunt. It is their logo on their wine bottles. My mom passed away in 2005.

Walking and enjoying the crunching leaves. 

This hill is what we drive up to get to our road and house..well, my father in law had been at our house and left...he was back a few minutes later saying trees had fallen over the road. Wow, did they. We couldn't get ahold of anyone right away from the county, so we grabbed our chainsaw and headed down the road to take care of business. He cut them up and another gal and I tossed them over the edge of the hill. We did enough to make way for cars and I think eventually someone came and finished it up. That was a workout.

Snow on the trees is also one of my favorites. We don't get to see them all the time here, so when we do I just love it. 

This post would not be complete without a Christmas tree photo. I just love decorating the tree and enjoying it's beauty. This was last years tree. I think this year might be our last year with a real tree. Hubby has been wanting us to move to an artificial tree and I finally caved. Lol.

These trees in Texas were so unique. Each base looked like the above photo and the "leaves" or needles were so different. I never found out what they were. 

I love when nature just does it's thing. When we were hiking on Orcas Island we came across many downed trees and nature just grew around them. 

This tree above was also in the wetlands where the big cedar was (sorry my photos are not in order). Isn't it amazing how life still appears even in the midst of what seems dead. 

This tree was on our walk to that castle in Switzerland. I wish I knew it's story. 

Another view of that big Cedar tree. 

Every year my nephew trims my inlaws tree, and in winter adds lights to it. This cracked up up seeing his head poking out of the top.

Another one of the big cedar. Can you see all the little trees growing out of it?

These were so fascinating. Stickworks garden created by Patrick Dougherty. They are made of roughleaf dogwood and American Elm. Read more here.

When we were driving up to Orcas Island, this tree was at the rest stop. How cool is this. 

The photo above and below were on Orcas Island,. They are called Pacific Madrones and they grow all over the islands. I LOVED the bark. So amazing. 

While on a trip to the beach a few years ago, we went on a hike and many of the trees were HUGE. This is my 5'2 1/2 daughter standing at the base of just one of them. She looked so small next to it. 

While on Orcas island, I saw all these little fir/pine, I don't know which, growing out of this moss covered fall tree. I thought it was so cool looking. 

Who doesn't love a tree house? Okay, I don't like heights so tree houses aren't my favorite, but I do think they're cool. This one was pretty neat. It was at a pottery place on Orcas Island. 

When on Orcas island we visited an awesome sculpture garden, and this was one of the sculptures. How unique right? They are all for sale and are regularly updated with new sculptures throughout the property. 

Also taken a few years ago at Battleground Lake, I love the colors and the reflection on the water. 

Water drops on leaves are so pretty. I was so excited to get a few photos that turned out. 

Well, there you have it. Off to visit others. 

With Joy Unquenchable,

Kirstin