WITWIT
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 - Setting out on my walk this morning, I was thinking about my twitter owl icon and asking the question WITWIT? Where In The World Is TrailLeader?
In other words... what trail am I walking now?... where am I on the hunt for more clues? Over 35 years ago, in high school, I helped organize the annual Swim Guard Treasure Hunt; clues were hidden in the five towns that made up our high school district. Over 70 students divided up into over a dozen cars out on the hunt. What a blast! Storywalking is a bit like that, but I travel mostly by foot.
While walking along Cedar Avenue and thinking about these old memories, a new clue appeared on the sidewalk in front of me. The clue was an unusual looking piece of tree bark, formed in the shape of an arrow pointing forward, and it had a smooth hole in the middle.
I walked a step or two further and found another piece, one that looked like the happy face of a Dr. Seuss Who character. Woo whooo!
Then I spotted a piece that was a little different, because it had some green lichen on it. Lichen is a plant, without stems or leaves that grows on trees and rocks. Green lichen! My favorite color - green! - and that's when I saw a chance for some word play... I'm lichen (likin') this game.
I started to look around and up to figure out what kind of tree the bark dropped from. I couldn’t figure it out, until I looked across the street and spotted a tree with a small owl hole in it, and in front of the tree I noticed another interesting piece of bark, shaped like an owl tree.
WITWIT! Where In The World Is TrailLeader! That’s how I had help finding a suitable home for my Story Walking character Lil Hoot... on Cedar Avenue, right around the corner from my house. What else did I find along the walk?...
A Captain America cup indicating that I was right on target, AND it was perfect for holding my pieces of bark treasure. I find a lot of clues in the litter I find along the road. So what other litter did I find?...
A package from a Speedo swim suit, lying on the ground at the end of a neighbor's driveway. The red lettering seemed to be sending me a message to perform. Perform means to do, as in please perform your storytelling. The Speedo package also reminded me of the green-and-white-striped Speedo suit I once wore as a Swimming Pool Guard. And what else did I find?...
Continue to follow the story trail by clicking on these arrow markers.
CONVERSATION STARTERS
These questions are meant to help your describe the setting of your life story.
What do you like most about your home?
Where do you like to walk and why?
What are the landmarks you notice as you walk around your neighborhood? It could be an unusual house or a beautiful garden or a particular tree or a stone wall...
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS FOR THE NATURALLY CURIOUS?
What kind of tree creates these strangely fun pieces of bark?
The "American" Sycamore tree, also known as the Buttonwood tree, is distinguished from other trees by its mottled exfoliating bark. The bark flakes off in great irregular masses, leaving the surface mottled, and greenish-white, gray and brown - like an army camouflage pattern. The bark of a tree has to yield to a growing trunk by stretching, splitting, or infilling. The rigid texture of the sycamore's bark tissue means a lack of elasticity relative to other trees; it's incapable of stretching to accommodate the growth of the wood underneath and so the tree sheds its bark off.
How is Sycamore different from other hardwoods on the inside?
Quartersawn Sycamore Wood
This unique species has an interlocked grain, where the longitudinal cells spiral slightly upward in one direction for a few years and then for some reason the spiral is reversed. The gives us a clue as to the unpredictable character of this tree. We will have to keep our eye on it.
Quartersawn sycamore wood forms an interesting light refracting pattern as a result of the changing pattern and interlocked quality of the ray tissue (ray cells that make the rings). This feature is seldom capitalized on by the current industry or woodworkers, because quartersawing literally goes against the grain and is timeconsuming, however, it's interesting to note that quartersawn wood is stronger than plain sawn wood. To see how quartersawing works, look at some explanatory diagrams.
CREATIVE EXERCISE
Collect interesting pieces of bark on your next walk, and using your imagination, create your own character with the pieces. Like this...
baby dragon
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