The Scherenschnitte Tree

It was a marvelous morning, with dramatic clouds and breaking light, but a bitterly cold wind. For the lamb that March arrived as on Tuesday morning transformed overnight into a lion who roared and fretted and rumbled through our area.

The temperature was in the mid-20s F but it felt far, far colder than that. That lion of a wind cut right through my heavy Woolrich coat and squeaked teardrops from my eyes against my will!

But of course, I had to go and see what the morning light was doing, so I stopped at a little church along the road I drive every day, and pointed my camera at the sky.

Huge, dark clouds hovered over a little tree that is one of my favorites in these parts. I photographed the big sky, and then I zoomed in tight on the little tree, and this was the shot I got.

I sometimes think of it as the Scherenschnitte tree, because it looks like a fake tree that was created via the traditional art of paper cutting. But  swear, it's real! From Wikipedia:

Scherenschnitte, which means "scissor cuts" in German, is the art of paper cutting design. The art work often has symmetry within the design, and common forms include silhouettes, valentines, and love letters. The art tradition was founded in Switzerland and Germany in the 16th century, and was brought to Colonial America in the 18th century by immigrants who settled primarily in Pennsylvania. (I recommend you do a google image search to find many more, but here are just a few samples: one, two, three, and four.)

A friend tells me that the tree in this photo reminds him of the trees from this video, and so I'm including it as my soundtrack song: Dredg, Same Ol' Road.