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Writer's pictureCrone

You'll be wishing for the robin...

...because I was talking to trees again.


I'd had a four-day migraine and was feeling not just fragile but liminal. My vision gets... no aura or flashes... but sort of dark spots... or rather as if my brain is too tired to make up for the saccades (the rapid movements our eyes make without us noticing). Things feel too close and too intense. Too loud and too bright. Too intrusive. Walking, I thought, would help.


So I walked. I had no tree in mind, and indeed I didn't want to stop. I was afraid. I was afraid of wasps. Even afraid of the deerflies.


Yet when I saw this tree, I felt called.

Mischa and Michael call it the Killer Oak, because it dropped a branch when Michael was walking past. He heard the creak and stopped so was not crushed. When I looked up, I saw two treecreepers spiraling round the branches and felt welcome. I sat.


The tree said it is not a Killer Oak but a Saviour Oak and that this was a good place, because the soil was rooted to the source.


No, I don't know what that means either. But I felt good by the tree and around me I could hear birds and beasts. This video has the sound of muntjac and squirrels.


But it seemed strange to say that this place is rooted to the source, when the Saviour Oak is so close to that strange eerie tree I had seen before, in an avenue of horse chestnuts where there were all those bird bones and no foliage and where, as it turns out, the silver birches are dying. The Saviour Oak said that other tree has more of the killer about it... though, it seemed to suggest, "not in a bad way". [Killer but not in a bad way? Er... How? - Ed.] [How in hell am I supposed to know?? - Crone] [OOOOOOOHHHHHH!!! Don't get tetchy! - Ed.] [You try having a four day migraine and a pain-in-the-arse cat yowling all the bloody time. - Crone] [He just wants love and attention, Crone. - Ed.] [Fuck right off. - Crone] [..... Ed.]


Where was I? Oh, so I went to see the Uncanny Oak.

I put my hand on the bark and found myself saying, "I am full of fear."


Uncanny Oak: Fear is always too late.


Crone: What?


UO: By the time you feel fear it has happened, and you have evaded it or not, or it is inevitable, and you will evade it or not. Fear comes afterwards.


C: Oh....


UO: Do you remember?


C: What? Oh, what caused the fear?


UO: Yes.


C: No. But I guess that's what I need to find out.


UO: Yes.


Back to the Hollow Places.


I thanked the tree and left... only to hear the strangest noise.

When I got closer, I saw, up high, three huge young cormorants in a nest, calling for food. I lef, so the parents could return.

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2 Comments


maplekey4
Sep 17, 2023

Fear's a biggie.

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maplekey4
Sep 13, 2023

What a walk you had! Kinda spooky. Cool.

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