Well Christmas is all wrapped up for this year. And it snowed! It snowed most of the day on the 25th and it was beautiful. Today we managed to even get out for a short ski and more snow is on the way later this week.
It actually feels like Winter now.
A few days before the snow fell I came across these wrapped trees along the highway. I found them a little haunting in their figure-like resemblance. The way they are mysteriously cloaked and how they gently bend. The way they are lined up in rows like… like what?… an audience for the passing cars?
They are whispering amongst themselves.
All images © Karen McRae
draw and shoot 
Looks like they are on a pilgrimage – perhaps on foot along the Camino de Santiago?
These are very interesting photos. NIce bokeh in the the first and fourth photos. I wonder what they look like in the snow. Might be worth another visit!
I may go back after more snow falls, I think their pilgrimage is a slow one. 😉
Very cool photos. The wrapped trees remind me of penguins and of sea lions, both lined up with their heads up up skyward. It’s not often I think of ever seeing trees in the same type of pose. Of course it is not often I ever see them wrapped in burlap.
Nice vision.
Best to you,
Shea
Thank you Shea!
You have excelled yourself with these Karen.. They remind me of Irish Immigrants in the time of the potato famine.. ( I lived in Ireland for 25 years though not at the time of the famine of course…I’m not quite that old 😉 )
I love your interpretation! Thanks Helen. 🙂
wow, great post..love it
You live in such a beautiful area!!
Since everyone is doing an association, I’ll add my two cents:
In Japan, there are these little stone statues at road-side shrines for Jizou,
the deity who protects children… In the winter, often people will put little aprons or cloth over the statues to protect them from the cold. I thought of those right away when I saw your pictures… =) They are also small and vaguely monk-like…
Your association is so interesting, I love how everyone sees something different in them based on their experiences or culture.
Wonderful – i love it – so mysterious…
This seems sort of creepy. I can imagine a story revolving around these trees somehow.
Like ghosts walking home through the fields…beautiful shots. Is that dew on the grass that is glinting? Or light snow?
Thanks Helen, the glinting comes from frozen water drops on the surrounding vegetation. I was happy to be there when it looked like that, adds to the mystery I think.
Odd looking and a little bit spooky.
Glad you got some snow on Christmas, Karen! And you’re right; there is something mysterious and strange about these covered trees. Thanks for seeing that. 🙂
These photos are amazing. Now I’m envious of them and the fact that you had snow for Christmas! Hope is was a wonderful day.
They are like a gathering of something, ready to either move en mass into a forest or brave a sea. Fabulous.
Thanks Jane, I love reading everyone’s impression of the images. 🙂
Thank you Elena, we did have a great day. We are heading into another snowfall shortly!
Wow, you got snow! 😀
These wrapped trees certainly attract attention in a haunting way. Nice observation, Karen. And well captured. 🙂
Thanks Nandini!
The lighting on this is wonderful and really does make it errie! Cool photo!
Karen – I am glad you received nature’s finest gift wrap of snow for Xmas! I think you have done such justice to these images of cloaked trees. You capture the eeriness of the scene, and it looks as if they may come alive at any moment. You did a wonderful job of it as it has evoked all sorts of emotions from reading your comments 🙂
Thanks Marina!
Great photos 🙂
beautifully captured. magnificent and haunting..
Wow! Photos of baby Ents!
There’s something so sweetly beautiful about these, something about their being swaddled, swaddled with love and concern for well-being through the harsh winter.
Should have known you’d get it F&B …I can see it now…baby Ents is right ….well spotted 😉
Baby Ents, I love it! 🙂
Captured Souls. 🙂
It does sort of look that way doesn’t it?
What an amazing find, you have caught some real atmosphere with these. “They are whispering… ”
Love that,
Jim
We drive past a row of wrapped trees like on the way into town. I had the same thought the first time I saw them. Isn’t imagination wonderful?
Wow!!! These photographs are incredible… absolutely beautiful and yet eerie… and also filled with incredible design. So crazy that you just happened to stumble upon them… it looks like an installation. I think these are your best work I’ve seen thus far… completely enchanting and haunting… thrilling to look at. I’m serious. Thank you for such a wonderful post! Wishing you a Happy New Year’s!
Thank you so much Polly! I am surprised at how much people are responding to this series. I guess it’s open to so many interpretations. You have been such an amazing supporter right from the beginning of my venture into blogging, I truly appreciate that! wishing you a happy New Year also and all the best in 2012.
So much food for the imagination.These images – especially that first one – are magical!
I’m pleased you like them Ray! thank you.
These are amazing, such lovely light and so well captured. Jealousy!
Wonderful! Could easily be an installation by Joseph Beuys!
They are like The Hattifatteners from The Moomins book series by the Finnish writer, Tove Janson. Here´s what Wikipedia says about them: “They are silent and serious, having neither the ability to talk nor to hear, but in contrast, their sense of feeling is extremely accurate, and they can sense even the most minor tremblings of the ground. They communicate seemingly by telepathy, and their eyes change colour with the sky. They also seem to be melancholic characters. However, despite physiologically resembling animals, Hattifatteners grow from seeds. Planting Hattifattener seeds where someone has taken up residence is an effective way to get rid of him or her.”
Perfect match, I´d say.
Happy New Year!
This is new to me, very interesting! 🙂
I love these images. I thought I might blog them, giving you and your blog full credit of course. I’ve seen bushes wrapped like this before and they’ve always intrigued me. Like Michelangelo’s ‘prisoners’.
By all means David, thank you. I’m flattered you are interested.
Very cool, they remind me of rabbits….although I’ve never seen rabbits standing rows
I love your questioning, likening them to an audience and for passing cars … very sweet!
I love these. Especially the first four. you’re right…very haunting.
Thank you Carlos, intriguing “characters” aren’t they?
Magical images. They appear to me to be a cross between meercats and seals! The first photo really caught my eye with that delicate lighting on the sacking.
Meercats and seals, so interesting…
I love how everyone interprets them differently.
wow they are a bit scary 🙂
Karen, I think your images of wrapped trees should really be shown in a gallery. Has your work appeared in that sort of venue?
Graham,
I have shown paintings in a gallery but not much in the way of photography, I may follow up on that. Thank you!
What a nice series. You captured them from “hope, to “suffering”, to “maybe” and then fo “forlorn.” But there are a few of them that look “beligerant” and can not wait for the caretaker to arrive so that they can teach him a lesson. I wouldn’t want to be the caretaker; the lesson would simply be to see what I have done to those poor little trees. (locust trees?)
HI Karen, I am slowly working my way through your photos and desperately want to leave a comment but everything that could be said has already been said. I have just discovered this tree series and it is breathtakingly beautiful and so redolent of ancient monoliths – standing sentries – marking time against the elements. Their ‘unveiling’ will be revealing and no doubt something else will emerge from under the covers. Is it a tradition to wrap small trees in the winter? Stunning, brilliant work and so accessible and open to multiple interpretations – thank you.
Hi Veronica, thank you so very much. These were an interesting find – they were planted along the highway before the fall and they were wrapped to protect them from their first winter – they were not wrapped this winter. I couldn’t drive by without thinking of them as figures.
Some people do wrap the smaller trees in the winter so the weight of snow and ice minimizes the damage.
Your comments are very kind!
Karen
They are a beautiful series Karen – it would almost be worthwhile to get permission to wrap them again next winter and re-visit re-shoot – the sentinel’s progress. Would their current size actually diminish their original power? I love your work thanks for sharing. regards Veronica
Like monks on a litany!