Still in Honolulu – Exploring the Banyan Tree

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This towering banyan tree, complete with benches around its circumference, is located outside the Honolulu Zoo. I spent some quiet time bench sitting and people watching on a stroll from Waikiki to Diamond Head.

The banyan tree is a common botanical feature of Hawaii even though it is not native to the islands. Their canopies are vast, the larger ones spreading up to a hundred and fifty feet across.

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Banyan trees are characterized by their prop roots that grow to support the expansive limbs. Trees spread laterally and can cover wide areas. I love the look of the roots as they drip towards the earth, seeking a firm footing.

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The trees are native to the tropics and subtropics and were brought to the Hawaiian Islands in the late 1800s by missionaries from India.

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Amazing roots. They can eventually become as large as the original trunk. And they make perfect roosts for the local birds and greats nooks for a game of hide and seek.

 

 

Mailbox and a Foggy Morning

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Early Morning Fog – Tree and Mailbox © 2015 Bo Mackison

“It’s funny; in this era of e-mail and voice mail and all those things that even I did not grow up with, a plain old paper letter takes on amazing intimacy.” ~ Elizabeth Kostova

Winter Star at Sunrise – Everyday a Story

Star at Sunrise

Star at Sunrise © 2015 Bo Mackison

There’s always a story. It’s all stories, really. The sun coming up every day is a story. Everything’s got a story in it. Change the story, change the world.”
~ Terry Pratchett

A Tree in Strength and Stillness – A Winter Scene

Winter Scene in Wisconsin

Winter Scene in Wisconsin © 2015 Bo Mackison

What do the trees know?
Buds can weather ice and snow.
Dark gives way to sunlight’s glow.
Strength and stillness help us grow.”
~ Joyce Sidman

Barn and a Sky of Weathered Tin

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Barn with Tree © 2015 Bo Mackison

…after a time the trees stood skeletal against a sky of weathered tin. The land lay bled of its colors. The nights lengthened, went darker, brightened in their clustered stars. The chilled air smelled of woodsmoke, of distances and passing time. Frost glimmered on the morning fields. Crows called across the pewter afternoons. The first hard freeze cast the countryside in ice and trees split open with sounds like whipcracks. Came a snow flurry one night and then a heavy falling the next day, and that evening the land lay white and still under a high ivory moon.”
~ James Carlos Blake in Wildwood Boys