burls

Story of a Trip

Chapter 8: Burls

I’m going out for a walk, I said to the room.

My sister said, Okay. My husband didn’t even look up from his iPad.

I put on my shoes and walked down the lane. The stone cat watched.

watching, waiting

Gosh, I thought, I would love to live on a Lane. Living on a Drive is so busy. I think living on a Lane is so much more romantic. I pictured an English lane full of privet hedges and climbing roses.

This lane, however, being in the Pacific Northwest and at the end of the year, was not remotely close to being an English Lane. Dripping trees towering over head, ferns sticking out at awkward angles, squishy ground covered in slippery pine needles and the smell of wet wood were my companions.

blue planter under ferns

I walked down the lane and encountered something that I’ve been wanting to take pictures of for years. It almost looks like something out of a sci-fi movie. Remember the pod people? But these are not people, they are burls. Big ones, Huge even. They are there because there is a woodworker in residence. He wasn’t there that day, it being New Year’s Eve. So I hung around a while and took some pictures.

pods

texture

nursery burl

what is under there?

two burls

And then, turning the corner of the mill I saw the grandaddy of them all. Please note, it is a very small dumpster, perhaps only 4 or 5 feet tall. Still, that make this burl about 8 feet high. I would love to see the inside of it. Wouldn’t you?

grandfather

If you want to go to Kim’s web-site…skip on over to http://liveedgewoodworks.com It’s definitely worth the trip.