#the oak

[adventuresofalgy]

The next morning was still somewhat blustery but relatively mild; the kind of morning more typical of September than late October in the wild west Highlands of Scotland, with sudden showers interspersed with bursts of autumn sunshine that at times seemed almost warm, although the sun was now skirting the tops of the ridges around Algy's home at a much lower level in the sky.

It was a fine morning on the whole, however, so leaving his place of refuge, Algy set out to see what harm might have been caused by the storm. He was happy to find that on the whole the damage in his assistants' garden had been slight, but one young oak tree had sadly been felled by the wind; it lay almost prostrate now, with its green and gold leaves continuing to wave in the sunlight as though it still stood tall.

Perching in its toppled branches to comfort the fallen tree, Algy rocked gently to and fro in the much reduced breeze, and remembered a short poem by Tennyson. Regrettably, it seemed unlikely that this particular oak would continue to exhibit its strength; it had evidently not been quite robust enough, and had been toppled too young, like many other unfortunate creatures in this world:

Live thy Life, Young and old, Like yon oak, Bright in spring, Living gold; Summer-rich Then; and then Autumn-changed Soberer-hued Gold again. All his leaves Fall'n at length, Look, he stands, Trunk and bough Naked strength.

[Algy is quoting the poem The Oak by the 19th century English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson.]

[filmap]

Balanța / The Oak Lucian Pintilie. 1992

Church Peștera 507136, Romania See in map

See in imdb

[houndofchivalry]

pinnable post for this blog:

hi, I'm Cinnamon, they/them, genderqueer & nonbinary & butch. I'm 32 years old and a practicing witch for almost ten years now. my main is @thepaladog

I'm clergy & priestex for my temple, which in my tradition means I'm sort of a spiritual counselor for people exploring a pagan path. I'm also a big bad wolf, which is to say, otherkin to red wolves specifically; I'll often call myself a 'werewolf' due to this, and posts connected to this are tagged #the wolf. I'm also fond of knights and the concept of (non-gendered) chivalry, hence the blog title. you may see me tag things in that vein as #the knight; these are ideals that I am strongly aligned with, things that I'm trying my best to be!

I could sit on a porch and talk for days about religion and spirituality but for the sake of a bio: I believe spirituality is fluid and highly personal, with overarching higher concepts that have connected us in an animistic way for as long as humanity's records go back. closed practices are closed practices and should be respected every time. indigenous people's voices should be heard and valued at every (neo-)pagan table. we do ourselves good by living closer to the natural world around us, by being aware of our status as good neighbors to everyone we can be.

my genealogy is mostly Germanic peoples, though my family has lived in the foothills of the Appalachias for about four-hundred years, so "Appalachian" is what I consider myself to be in a regional cultural sense. as is common in that folkloric practice, I have found the most comfort in following nature (in its many aspects) as divine and most of my ritual practice is aligned with what you might call 'granny craft'.

on this blog, you will see my tags for these concepts that I hold holy to my own devotion and practice. these are sort of abstract and ever-expanding. some of them are like divinity to me, while others are more like friends and mentors. these may change but right now they are:

#the bear - life well-lived, wild nature, the nurturer & the protector, leadership, responsibility, neutral forces of balance, the importance of eating berries barefoot by the river with people you love, harshness & tenderness both being a part of being alive

#the black dog - death & grief, growth through loss, liminal spaces, the art of witchery, the silence of a 3am parking lot and the sound of a 3am forest, every crossroad both literal and metaphorical

#the rabbit - the rabbit; patience, awareness, action, caution, daring.

#the foxes - the red fox; sunlight, daytime, warmth, laughter, play, growth. the gray fox; moonlight, nighttime, cold, reality, mischief, decay.

#the frog - the element of water; emotions, memory, reflection.

#the salamander - the element of fire; passion, control, desire.

#the oak - the element of earth; balance, stability, homeland.

#the dragonfly - the element of air; creativity, expression, whimsy.

welcome, feel free to ask me questions, I don't post my own content very often but who knows, maybe one day I'll change that!

[ask-de-writer]

I WOULD LIKE TO THANK

@ofairandbeauteousone for READING

and LIKING

my poem THE OAK

[courtleymanor]

The Quickening - The Oak

from my Midsummer music playlist

For shelter and shade Has the oak tree grown The ship, the cradle The hearth, and home

Arms so strong They hold the sky Stood so long that The heart can't die

The limbs, the veins The head and the heart The earth, the roots The leaves and the bark

Tear the branch And your crops will fail Break the bough And your fleet won't sail

It cries when The black rain burns Trees die when The seas return

A dozen generations Has the oak tree grown The roots reach deep To the rocks and bones

Arms so strong They hold up the sky Stood so long that The heart can't die

The limbs, the veins The head and the heart The earth, the roots The leaves and the bark

[yamujiburo]

Boss

[All comics in order here]

[banicraft]

Pale Oak my Beloved

[catmask]

in finnish, the '@' symbol is sometimes referred to as 'kissanhnta' [cat's tail] or 'miau', 'miau merkki' [meow marks]. in the pokemon universe, i thought it might be cute if the '@' symbol were called 'the mew' or 'mew symbol'

considering both bill and professor oak would know about mew, i imagined a conversation in which this term was coined in which professor oak tries (and finally succeeds) at sending his first email.

[expressions-of-nature]

Fontainebleau State Park, Louisiana by Lana Gramlich

[wild-e-eep]

This distinctively warty lichen is Melanohalea exasperata (with several friends) on a lushly populated oak twig.

It can be tricky to find as it mostly grows high up in the tree canopy - so far I've only enountered it on branches that have recently fallen to the ground.

[xxtc-96xx]

they won

[roach-works]

pokemon theory i just thought of: new pokemon appear in the pokemon universe when they're designed in this one. they're created ex nilho but they have retroactive realness; they weren't here yesterday, but today they've always existed.

pokemon researchers have had to suss this out on their own over decades, and it's a really unpopular theory, made worse by the fact that no one can come up with a better one. from their perspective pokemon generate spontaneously but in both chronological directions, and the similarities of many pokemon seem to be detived from a conscious and creative understanding of the world--their world, though? what other world could there be?. there are ice cream pokemon and pokeball pokemon and sword pokemon and trash bag pokemon.

there are so many pokemon with both wings and a beak. is this like swords? is there an ur-flying type that this class evokes? there are so many canine pokemon. but what is a canine? is there such a thing? there's only one set of sword pokemon, right. one tea-set line. is *feline* a coherent category? would the ur-feline have two legs or four? why do so many pokemon have humanlike bodyplans-- but then again, why so few?

pichu has always been the prior form of pikachu. why didn't it get counted in order? why do we call it that instead of saying pikachu is the middle evolution of the pichu line? why can so many trainers remember finding this out well into their journeys? why didn't ash start with one?

this is why pokemon researchers do a lot of labwork, drink heavily, and use ten year olds for field research. you can't have an existential crisis if you don't even know what time is yet.

[houndofchivalry]

today's mood

[ask-de-writer]

I would like to thank Delightfully

EAGER BINGE READER

@furislupus​ for READING and LIKING

My whole MASTER STORY INDEX SECTION,

He has gone into MLP Fan Fiction with

THE PRICE OF AMBER (parts 1 to 7 of 23)

and my humorous poem, THE OAK

[drawthiere]

hes back from jail and serving cunt