The Dreaming Tree The art, photography & dreams of Lana Gramlich. Also notes on nature sciences (astronomy, parklands, etc.,) & dream related subjects. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 30 0 62 3229

Articles from The Dreaming Tree

Robins & Last Night's Dream; Accident, Last Meal & Iraq 2007-12-17 14:43:00 I had been called to serve in Iraq. My last meal had been set up at a nearby hotel. On my way there, I decided to get my car washed. On the way to the car wash, a patron from our library cut me off, causing an accident. She admitted fault & apologized profusely. I told her she needed to be more careful when driving, particularly as she had a young girl in the car with her. The car wasn't damaged beyond repair, so I continued on & got my car wash. Afterwards I went to the hotel, where Tony Bennett's table had been reserved for me. I had a good meal & there was free entertainment. When I was finished, I went up to the counter to pay. The waitress there explained that the evening was provided completely free of charge. I was impressed & appreciative, & continued on to Iraq. On arrival, I met the rest of our small group. There were only 4 of us & it was unlikely that we'd ever see any action. I was relived & gladdened. The man in charge brought me outside. We had to install my phone lin ... Amp

This Morning's Birds 2007-12-16 13:32:00 A small sampling...Cardinal, towhee and chipping sparrow.White-throated and chipping sparrows and a pair of cardinals.2 male cardinals.20 chipping sparrows (roughly.) ...

"Inner Child" & Last Night's Dream; Goodbye, Transformers & Books 2007-12-16 10:50:00 D.D. & I had been hanging out a lot again but he had decided to move away & I had to say goodbye. It was hard. Then there was something about the "Transformers" movie. After that I was with one or two other people, driving from place to place (particularly gas stations?) searching for books to add to our collection. At one point I came across a Pern (Harper Hall) novel by Anne McCaffrey & took it.As evidenced by ommission, I didn't remember Friday night's dream (actually I did remember a fragment, but didn't write it down in time.) This was because I had to get up too early & hussle to bring my art to a local market. I sold nothing & got a sunburn (it was 75F & sunny,) but at least I reread "Swords of Talera." Friday night's dream would've been the 30th night of dream recall in a row, but 29's still pretty good.We watched "Transformers" last night. To put it succinctly, if you're a young teen (particularly with ADHD,) you'll probably like this movie.The Pern novel is also a "ho ... Amp  Transformers

Astronomically speaking... 2007-12-14 09:58:00 Last night (or early this morning); Did anyone happen to catch the Geminid meteor shower? We were clouded out here (& still are,) unfortunately. I'm not really complaining, as we need the rain. At least we caught some Perseid meteors this past August.Today; Neptune is in conjunction with the Moon, meaning they're within 30 degrees of one another. Unfortunately Neptune & Uranus aren't among the "visible" (with the naked eye) planets. Speaking of which...Sunday; Uranus will be in conjunction with the Moon. If you happen to have a telescope, you may want to have a look. Monday; 1/4 Moon. You can tell what the moon's doing by which side is lit. Right side--waxing. Left side--waning.Tuesday; Mars' closest approach to Earth this year. If you have clear skies, it will seem particularly bright (although the size difference probably won't be discernible to the naked eye.) Not truly the "red" planet, Mars is more pumpkin-colored.("Moonset Over Fog Lake" was inspired by a Halloween night sp ...

Purple Mountain & Last Night's Dream; Nip/Tuck, Garage Sale & Trapped at Wal*Mart 2007-12-14 09:23:00 I was in a ground floor room w/large windows (kind of like a store,) watching Nip/Tuck on TV. I thought about someone in the area who everyone recently considered a hero. Soon I had to move to a different TV, outside, down near an uninhabited cul-de-sac. The area was overgrown with weeds. I mentioned the show to others I met on the way, laughing about it. Soon a man came to tell me about a garage sale nearby. I turned around to find the street area filled with furniture & other things. The man mentioned that a wooden desk for sale had been reduced by "5 figures." I went to check it out—it was small with few drawers (if any,) & it was still over $500. The man was standing by a woman, smiling at me. Considering the desk was still way overpriced, I moved away (at which the man's smile faded.) Later I had to go to Wal*Mart for something. The only entrance was a shipping entrance in the back. No one was there. I went through the first shipping (metal, roll-down style,) door & as I headed ... Amp

Last Night's Dream; Avoiding Mom 2007-12-13 09:01:00 I went to Canada for a visit. In a building I ran into R. I told him not to tell Mom he’d seen me. I wasn’t sure he had the mental aptitude to keep the secret, however. Soon I ran into my Uncles & a couple of Aunts, most of which who had died. I was glad to see them & spoke with them happily. I also told them not to tell Mom I was in town. Then I realized that Mom was in the back of the group. She didn’t take my rejection very badly, but I had to leave with her.Mom & I didn't have the best relationship when she was alive (to put it mildly.) Except for one of my Aunts, all of the relatives in the dream died years ago. It was nice to see & speak with them again, even if it was just a dream...I drew the panther above for a friend in Canada some years ago. I like how it came out. ...

Birds & Last Night's Dream; Breakfast, Pythons & Bad Men 2007-12-12 14:50:00 My coworkers & I went for breakfast at a restaurant with a large patio. Later I was in a neighborhood I used to live in. There was a path into the woods. A large python was there. It was strange in that it had 4 stubby legs. Somehow I knew it was harmless. Going back to that area later, that snake was gone. There was some kind of white, plastic container there. Looking in, I saw an actual python (without legs.) It was also very large & in this case it wasn't harmless. I left before anything untoward happened. I was stopped by a bad man in the area, who demanded directions to a nearby quarry that had been converted to a lake. He intended to commit a crime there & I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to hurt me. Referring to a map, I saw numerous entrances to the area (& a couple of houses nearby.) I asked, repeatedly, which way he wanted to go in, but he was too busy talking with a cohort. Finally I snapped & yelled at him, at which point he finally told me he wanted to take Oak Street in. La ... Amp

Boating on Bogue Falaya 2007-12-11 10:23:00 While enjoying the park the other day, Charles found a leaf that would make a good boat. He put a couple of sweet gum balls in it as passengers & off we go...Unfortunately, on our first launch, one of the sweet gum balls fell out of the boat. It reminded me of Cast Away, when Wilson falls out of Chuck's boat.With me crying "Willlllsoooooon!" in the background, Charles just had to "save" the 2nd sweet gum ball.Relaunch...The boat soon started taking on water, as the 2 sweet gum balls were positioned too close to one end, but it beached itself before it sank, anyway. The experience made me think of people who have viking funerals for their small pets...Like these guys; ...

Geminids & Last Night's Dream; Invention 2007-12-11 10:00:00 An engineer was working on an invention. Part of it would say; "Wile E. Coyote—Suuuuuper Geeeeeenius."I needed sleep again, thus the teeny dream fragment. Both parts are from real life; last night I read a couple of Dilbert books & the day before I'd said the Wile E. Coyote bit to Charles.The Geminid meteor shower is coming up. It's probably the best shower of Autumn. I highly recommend it. If you need it, NASA provides conversions from UT to US Time Zones. ... Amp

Last Night's Dream; Reality TV House & Flags at the Store 2007-12-10 21:51:00 I lived in a house with others as part of a reality show. One guy (Danny Bonaducci?) constantly acted like an idiot. At one point the producers build a tall, black, antenna-like tower near the house. It had an attachment toward the top. The idiot guy climbed it & tried to tear it down. He was yanking on the attachment & yelling. Nothing was breaking & we all just wished he'd just shut up & come down. Eventually he leapt to one side. He flew a considerable distance, over to some trees at least 100 yards away. He fell down through the trees. Regardless of the distance, we could hear his cries of pain as he crashed helplessly from branch to branch on his way down. He landed on a concrete pad at the bottom with a thud & laid there, unmoving. We knew he was only hurt & not dead, but no one went to help him & we all hoped he might have learned a lesson. We went back into the house. I watched birds outside through the back door. A male housemate was trying to paint over a mural on a wall in ... Amp

Bogue Falaya Park 2007-12-09 15:51:00 We went for a picnic & walk at Bogue Falaya Park today. Considering the beautiful weather (77F & partly cloudy with a nice breeze,) I thought it might be busy. Instead it was practically deserted. For scale, the opening under these bamboo trees is tall enough to walk under. Also, if you're keeping track, this morning was the New Moon. ...

Last Night's Dream; Claves & Restaurant 2007-12-09 15:28:00 I looked at a poster of claves of the world. The background was white. It wasn't terribly interesting. Later I went with others to a restaurant. A woman with us (R.M.?) wanted a powder dip they have. There were coolers (like at convenience stores,) along a couple of walls. I went with her to look for the power dip. It wasn't where it was supposed to be. She found some behind a containers of peaches. The food was good, so I decided to go back to the restaurant again later. They were so busy I had to park up the street.Most people I know have never heard of a clave, so I've included the picture above. I was given a clave while in Austin, TX during our evacuation from Hurricane Katrina. I thought it couldn't be hard to knock a couple pieces of wood together, but I was wrong. ... Amp

Shameless Plug & Egret Painting 2007-12-08 15:27:00 With the holidays fast approaching (& a transmission rebuild still to pay for,) I have a number of prints for sale for $10/ea (including shipping to the continental U.S.) Apologies about any pop-up ads over there--getting our own domain name set up is next on my "to do" list.As promised, the egret painting I've been working on. I'm not entirely pleased with the digitization on this one, as it's lost some of it's detail. I tried using the camera or my scanner, but this was the best I could get it. ... Amp

Treats for the Birds...Allegedly 2007-12-08 14:24:00 Charles was kind enough to gather me up some pine cones the other day, so this morning I filled a few of them up with a peanut butter/mixed seed/leftover cookies/crushed egg shell mixture & hung them out back. I know they'll all be stolen by the raccoons tonight, before the birds even check them out. The birds here are suspicious of anything new, even when it's for their benefit. The few times I've chopped up some fruit to put out with the seed, all it did was prevent the birds from even coming for the seed. They'd swoop in, see unfamiliar bits & head elsewhere. A braver bird or two (usually larger ones; blue jays, crows or woodpeckers,) might take me up on my offer, but the songbirds take a few days to "come around." Unfortunately, this time of year they don't have time to "come around." The raccoons have returned en masse to fatten themselves up for "Winter" (in quotes because South Louisiana doesn't even get a real Winter.) Although I would like to see the birds enjoying my tr ...

"Tulips at Night" & Last Night's Dream; Post-Apocalypse 2007-12-08 13:43:00 I'm with others in a post-apocalyptic world. We're all in a bare, small, wooden house. We need to hook up a pumping system to a water source, but it was going to be a long, complicated task with uncertain results. We were all dreading the thought. To our delight, J.R. offered up the water tank from his deserted house--a large, white, metal cylidrical thing. We went to get it, then hung it from the ceiling above a bathtub. Afterwards I went into another room with a female friend. I was taking pictures with my digicam. In a mirror on the other side of the room I saw "Alan" come to the doorway. He wanted to be with me romantically. The feeling was not reciprocal—I always dreaded when he came around & made excuses to get away. In this case I left the house with a few others to see what else might still be around. We found a strip mall that was mostly deserted and damaged, with no front wall at all. 2 automotive repair shops there were still open, each still with a male mechanic inside. ... Amp