Notes from the Hollow

Agatha (Christie) pushed open the screen on a window and jumped to the ground below. Luckily, I was home to hear the dogs chasing her and found her at the top of this tree. With help locking the dogs up and a ladder, she was retrieved and returned inside the house. She's fortunate she wasn't a dog's lunch.

Photograph by Mary J. Weems

After the hike along the mountainside under a forest of broken trees there is a large bluff with two caves under it. Here is one of them.

This bluff and the two caves under it have many associated tales: a campsite for Native Americans, a hideout for a bank robber, a cool place to sleep in the summer for a nightshift worker...

On April 5th, I heralded the annual return of the whip-poor-will to the hollow. I've not heard it since. Did it move on? Is it just being quiet? Was it someone's lunch?

On the Northwest corner of the hollow property, high up on the side of the mountain, is a sizeable bluff with two caves beneath it. The caves aren't too big, but they are all we have and we are quite fond of them. The trail to the caves has been in good shape for the past ten years. Raymond and Sylvia Teague built the trail before then, clearing it of obstacles and lining the trail with rocks. A stone bench was even built for stopping to look at the view and rest. The ice storm caused havoc along the trail, however. Now it is a difficult walk, climbing over fallen trees, and avoiding limbs scattered on the ground.

This pine fell, breaking and bending smaller trees as it went. In the background, one can see the blackberry field with the small shed. Once upon a time this was a strawberry field and the shed was used for sorting berries (so I've been told). Now the shed is full of wood rat nests built out of prickly blackberry branches.

When I saw this tree it reminded me of a giant that had fallen on its back, and I guess that is what it actually is.

One thing I've noticed taking these photographs for Notes from the Hollow is that it is hard to capture the sheer size of big trees in these little pictures. This mighty sycamore was a very large tree, but it doesn't translate well here. This tree fell crushing another smaller oak and in turn, like dominoes, caused several other trees to fall.

Sycamores are one of the largest trees that grow in the Ozarks. They reach great heighths and can be massive in girth. They grow most often in moist soil, so are often found in hollows, like this one near a spring just across the property line. As you can see above, when the ice pulled this tree down, the roots just came out of the ground. Makes me wonder if a tree gets spoiled with good soil and plenty of water and doesn't grow its roots as deep as it would otherwise.

This tree is on the beginning of a walk I took that led to a big bluff with a couple of caves under it. I'm still assessing the damage left by the Great Ice Storm of 2009 (as I've heard it referred to as). I hope to include more photographs of the terrible toll the ice took on the trees in the hollow.

Almost exactly a year ago, I ran this photograph of an egg. One of the dogs had brought it in (you can see a tooth mark) to the house. I supposed it to be a turkey egg.

The other day a comment was posted to the original entry by Robert Brunner. He corrected my supposition. The egg is that of a buzzard.

In a hollow near the town of Fifty Six, Arkansas.

Wonder what the proper name of these are?

Don't seem to be many Morel Mushrooms (yet) this year. Did I miss out? A little butter in the frying pan, some garlic salt... yummm.

Seems to me that there are more eggs in the spring creek this year than normal.

The porchlight is attracting all manner of insects.

A whip-poor-will has returned to the hollow. As is everything this spring, it is earlier than last year. Sarvis bloomed earlier, Redbuds bloomed earlier, Morel Mushrooms out earlier, May Apples out earlier, to name a few I noticed.

My photography software has yet to be healed following my computer's bout with a malware attack. Well, that's not true. It was working (I submit as evidence the blog photograph of March 27th), but is not now. I have many photographs to post once it is all worked out.