trees – New England's Narrow Road

tree branches in winter — Leafless Tree in Winter

I’ve always loved trees. They are just so amazing in many ways. But now that I live in a place where I have to burn firewood in winter, I look at trees differently. I look at a tree like the one pictured and think, “would that be great firewood or what?” Actually, I don’t know what type of tree this is, but probably it would be great firewood. If I had to guess, I’d say oak.
Without leaves, I have trouble telling an oak from a maple. The beech, with it’s smooth bark, and the birch with it’s white, are no-brainers, but the rest of them leave me baffled.
I don’t know how people go out and hook up their maple syrup collecting apparatus in Spring – and can figure out which trees are the maples.
Being a Florida transplant (even though I grew up in the northeast) I have to learn the tree types that grow around me. I have an acre of land now and out back I have a forest, with some trees that are dead or dying and when I have them cut down, I’ll use them to heat my house.
Trees are beautiful, but they were meant to be used and I don’t feel bad cutting down a tree to serve a purpose. It’s helpful to thin the forest and allow other trees to grow larger too. Then again, some trees are too beautiful to cut down.

♦The Chore of Stacking Firewood
♦Make Birds Happy With Homemade Suet

How to Remove a Tree (answers.com)
Halkias: A tale of two maples (vtdigger.org)

I’ve been watching for the leaves to change and so far I am a bit disappointed. I do see some very vivid colors in places, but not much around here where I live. The past couple of years the trees were so bright and I’d walk down by the lake almost every day to get some new photos.

So far, there isn’t much to see at the lake and when I took a walk this past week I got a shot of one tree that seems to always have good color, but it was only partially turned.

sun through the trees — A walk in the woods

I’ve read that hot, dry summers are not good for producing great Fall color and that is exactly what we had for summer weather this year. So far, I think it might be true. I meant to take my camera and get some shots of one area where I saw some beautiful trees, but I forgot the other day and now the wind and rain has come, so I don’t know what’s left. I guess I’ll just wait and see how the color turns out.
But it is possible to get nice photos of green trees as well.