WEEPING WILLOW

Boy, talk about brain freeze.  Pondering what on earth I can write about today.  Looking out the window is exactly like yesterday, clouded over.  Light rain earlier.  Even the trees are lazy......leaves are calm and quiet.

Speaking of trees.....the recent high winds took down lots of large old and beautiful trees.  Literally ripped their roots out of the ground.  A stately weeping willow graces Venny's grounds, and the wind ripped off a large section of its limb structure.  Guess it's damaged to where it will be removed.  The thought of that tree leaving us makes me sick.  Trees, to me, might be rooted in one place and never speak to us, but they walk life alongside us.

The weeping willow is one of the most sought-after landscaping trees in the world.  It's a fast-growing shade tree that can grow 10 feet in one year.  They grow in Europe, North America and Asia.

The bark of the weeping willow is used to make aspirin.  Their wood is used to make cricket bats, flutes, furniture, broom handles, whistles and fish traps.  Beautiful baskets are woven with willow stems.  Artists make 3-dimensional sculptures of human and animal figures by weaving willow stems.  

According to legend, the weeping willow once stood erect and strong.  However, the death of two lovers so touched the heart of these trees that their branches drooped in misery and could never rise again. 

Don't know what it is about legends and mythical stories, but I find them interesting and fun to pass on.  A lot of flowers and trees have legends attached to them from the past.  To those of us who live at a different time in history, these tales may sound silly, but it's just kinda neat to know what people long ago were thinking.  

If I was younger, I think it would be fun to weave with willow branches, but a person can't go around cutting branches off trees anymore.  Our world has grown off limits with "no-trespassing" and "keep out" signs posted everywhere.  Mankind has increased in population, with more and more regulations imposed to keep the peace, and we're monitored everywhere we go by cameras.  I personally don't mind the cameras, because I feel they are a protection to me should I ever be at the wrong place at the wrong time.  Privacy is a thing of the past.  

Guess part of getting older is comparing "back then" with "now."  Only we can do that.  The younger generations have nothing to compare "now" to.....it's the only way they know.  This makes it obvious why the generations sometimes battle with one another.  That's where the old-saying "live and learn" was conceived.  

Time to refill the cuppa......