Tree Project - June. And the end.

Dear Mr Tree,
I'm so sorry but I have to go. I hope you won't be too upset.

We nearly made it to a year though, hurray!! Maybe I'll wander your way once a month and see you're doing? I don't want to promise anything though, I wouldn't want to get your hopes up unnecessarily. You see things are going to be changing soon and maybe it's best that you're left behind as part of this life I had. I hope you understand.

So how have you been this month?

I see your beautiful white flowers have withered and turned brown as quickly as they arrived. Why don't they last longer? When you get up close to you I realise you're already beginning to look a little drab and you can't do that, it's only just properly summer time.!

Still, I guess things change don't they?

Good luck in the future Mr Tree, I'll miss seeing you every day. I hope the new people in the flat will appreciate you as much as I did.

Bye Mr Tree

Lots of love

The Girl.

Tree Project - May edition

Dear Mr Tree

Ok, what in god's name is going on. I turn my back for one week and this happens...

What are you doing to me?! You can't go from only just having leaves one month to being fully foliaged up.

And not just covered in leaves you have flowers. Many many many flowers.

You really look quite beautiful Mr Tree. Very dapper. And judging by all the twittering and cheeping going on outside my window, the birds are loving it too. Especially Mr Blackbird, he comes and sits on top of the downstairs flat's bay window, loosely called our 'balcony' (no we really shouldn't sit on it but we don't have a garden, needs must!).

Really can't believe how much you've changed. Just to recap you looked like this just under a month ago. Seriously?! Tell me something, are you on 'roids? It doesn't seem normal.

You see this is a long term project, you're supposed to make incremental changes over the months and then this feature will be more interesting, you can't just blow your load in a month. Where do we go from here?! You'd better have something up your belt, otherwise I'm going to be most unimpressed.

Anyway, as you were.

Love

The Girl.

Views from the sofa

What I can currently see...

A foot which is much less swollen and getting less painful by the day. Thankfully not broken, a discovery made by a late night trip to A&E on Bank Holiday Monday just to make sure. Just a very bad sprain. Story of my life. I am incredibly clumsy and have lost count of the number of times I have cockled over on my ankles but somehow have never broken a bone. Must be all that milk my Mum made me drink when I was younger.

Pretty tulips that Mum got me as a present for looking after Fred and Lily for a week.

Mr Tree who is looking obscenely green. Seriously. Didn't I tell him in the last Tree Project post to slow the hell down?

Everything I need on 2 little tables:

- cup of tea

- glass of water

- my best friends, Ibuprofen and Paracetemol

- Grey's Anatomy Series 2 - currently re-watched most of this series in the last few days

- New book on the go, Stephen King's Duma Key

- Aida, hoop, thread and needle ready to start my next piece for the Embroidering the Truth exhibition

- Granny squares. Look at how many now!! Eighteen baby. Eighteen. I feel that the end is almost in sight. Almost.

Unfortunately all the relaxing and fun is almost at an end. Mum is taking me into work later this afternoon to pick up some work to bring back home and get stuck in to. Much as I would just love to be off sick, there's a part of me that knows I should be more professional, I can do work, I just can't walk at the moment. Planning on being back in the office on Friday, although we'll have to see how the 20 minute walk in to work goes.

Something else I can see? In the distance, lying on their side, the cause of all my misery...

I can't decide whether to throw them out or frame them.

PS. To Mr/Ms Anonymous who left the comment on my last post which had more than a slight tone of judgement to it - I'm 27. Thanks for asking :)

Tree Project - April

Hey Mr Tree.

So last month I berated you for not really making any progress with the whole spring thing. Then I turn my back for a month and before I know it you're looking suspiciously green.

When the hell did you get leaves?!

Could you not have maybe given me a slight warning? A bit of a heads up so I could have come outside and taken some pictures of the in between phase of having a few random green buds to proper leaves?!
I feel like you're not really taking this whole thing very seriously.

But I'm pleased to see that you've got onboard with the whole spring thing. Those little red berries are finally all withered and dead and instead you have brand spanking new leaves taking their place.

And when I look out of the window you don't look quite as sad as you used to, you've got a bit of colour back in your cheeks. And on Sunday, after we had that crazy random thunderstorm that had the raindrops bouncing off the pavements, and the sun came out, but the sky was still gret, your leaves looked really beautiful against it. Shame I couldn't find my camera for the life of me.

Anyway. Good work Mr Tree. You've made incredible progress in a mere month. I shall expect such high standards from you in the future.

Tree Project - March

Hey Mr Tree

So last month everything was looking promising - green shoots, blue skies, birds singing - it all looked so good.

And now what?

Spring appears to have halted, at least on this road, for a short while. As I type the rain is hammering against the windows and you are looking more than a little forlorn. And it's surprising because this morning I took this photo,

and things were looking pretty happy.

One question though.

Where are the leaves buddy?

You've halted at green shoots and I've got to tell you, please don't give up now, just try and keep going and produce a little bit more. For me. Ok?

Tree Project - The first 6 months

Don't worry, I'm not going to turn in to an arborist.

(Are you impressed I know that word?)

(Don't be. I asked the boyfriend.)

But I just wanted to show you this. Purely because it took me longer than necessary.

You know when you've decided to do something and then halfway through you think to yourself "What the hell are you doing?" but you've gone so far and you don't want to have wasted the last half hour of your life?

This is what happened to me yesterday.

Really I blame The Curious Cat because it was all her idea. "Why don't you do a 6 month review?" she says. And I think "Oooh yeah great idea."

And then I set about trying to do it and realise that actually when it comes to things like that I'm pretty much a technical moron. Why else do you think my blog layout is rubbish and boring? It just stresses me out trying. What I really need to do is pay someone to do this kind of stuff for me but I couldn't bear to that either, so I'm stuck known as that Girl with the Boring Blog.

So why would I decide to try and do this montage?

Because I'm a fricking idiot.

But at least I had a go, right? Right? RIGHT?

(This is where you talk to me like you would a child who's brought home a splodge on a paper and you have to pretend that it's amazing and the finest bit of artwork you've ever seen when in fact you're thinking "Do I really have to put that on my fridge?")

So. Here's a collage of Mr Tree's First 6 Months....

I don't even know if you can make it bigger. I've given up stressing about it. If you come round to my flat I can show you my laptop because it's my desktop background (hey, I'm proud of my splodge) and you can see the writing and everything.

In summary.

It had leaves, then the leaves turned golden, then they fell off, then it snowed on it, and now it has some green shoots.

Shocking I know, right?

Do you ever think to yourself sometimes, "Why in the name of all that is holy am I about to click 'publish post'? You know it's a bit crap, you know that people probably don't want to read about a frigging tree two days in a row, just delete it!! But I have rubbish self esteem and know that you guys are going to be my proud parents telling me I'm wonderful, so bear with me, ok? I'll come up with something better in a couple of days.

Tree Project - February

Hey Mr Tree,

How's February been?

I know it's been pretty rough for you - it's snowed on you, it's rained on you, the wind has battered your branches. I would imagine you're pretty fed up with it by now. I know I am.

At first the snow was a novelty and it was exciting, now it's just dull. And annoying.

And more importantly, it's cold. Really really cold.

I'm bored of it being cold, are you? You don't even have any leaves to keep yourself warm.

You look so miserable and see, even your berries are all dying and stuff. It's so sad.

But what's this I see?

GREEN SHOOTS!

Keep the spirit of Spring alive Mr Tree, keep it alive.

I took these photos this morning as I was setting off for work. I had to get my blinkers on and focus on what I was doing. If I'd stopped for a second I'd have realised how ridiculous I looked to all the people also on their way to work. I tell you, the lengths I go to...

Tree Project - January edition

Dear Mr Tree,



I have neglected you this month. I'm so sorry.



I hope you don't mind but January is such a blah month. And plus I've had so much to talk to everyone about with The Americans being over (you remember them, you saw them when we were building that snowman, you gave us some twigs for arms) that I just kind of forgot about you.



And to make matters worse I haven't even taken a photo of you recently. It's always dark whenever I think about it but you know what? It's getting lighter and I'll take better photos of you.



But for now I think I'll post a picture of you from the beginning of this month.



You look very pretty in it so I'm hoping you won't mind.

And I know that everyone bitched about the snow when it was here but I would rather have everything looking like it did in this photo than like the grey, wet, drabness that's going on at the moment.

So I'll see you in February when I promise I will take some better photos of you and report on your progress.

So until next month Mr Tree,

The Girl.

Tree Project - The Snow Edition

Remember how I said it didn't snow in Hull?

Well last night, while I was glued to Strictly Come Dancing (go Chris!!), it fell. It fell and fell and fell.

And I looked outside the window and saw that Mr Tree had a lovely coat of snow. I immediately raced outside, camera in hand, to capture the moment.

"It'll still be there in the morning" the boyfriend said.

"Yeah but....what if it isn't?....and....you know....I want to play in the snow." was the reply.

So I went down to capture his snowy moment.

I think he looked rather beautiful don't you?

And after having a little stomp in the snow and building a miniature snowman, I came back inside to warm myself up and do a little project (I'll tell you about that tomorrow).

This morning I woke up and wasn't happy with what I saw.

A blue sky.

I felt like I was living out The Snowman when the little boy wakes up and the sun is shining in his eyes and he goes running out to see the snowman melted. I went running downstairs, camera in hand, still in my pjs to see if Mr Tree was still snow covered....

He wasn't.
The snow was melting off his red berries.

(And my snowman had gone but I feel this was less to do with melting and more to do with living next door to a nightclub - I feel the temptation was too great for some drunken revellers.)

The Tree Project - December edition

Oh my GOODNESS it's COLD!!

It was so cold today that on my way home at lunchtime it hailed on me. Actually no. It hailed at me. In my face. It was like it was a hail attack aimed directly at me. I'm pretty sure it's left bruises.

Everywhere else gets snow but Hull is too flat for snow. You know the weather's really bad when it snows in Hull. We are flat. Flat, flat, flat. People don't get just how flat we are. But I'm telling you....it's flat. So flat that, having grown up here I now struggle enormously with the slightest incline, I get out of breath walking up my sister's drive.

I still wish though. I wish it would snow. And as I was looking out of the window, wishing for the flakes to fall (not the balls of ice that tried to stab me earlier on), I realised something.

I'm late with Tree Project!

I know. I don't know how you've all been coping without it.

Ready to see him?

Sure?

Okay then....

He. is. bare. naked. Not a leaf on him. There are a few berries still left on him. They're hardcore those berries. Nothing's going to knock them off, not the wind, not the hail. Even if I stare at them really hard. They just....stay there.

So there's not a stitch on him from the top of his head...

...to the bottomest of his branches.

And I feel a little sorry for him. But I told him, on my way past today, that soon it will be a New Year and that means a fresh start, and things will start a-changing...

See you in the New Year Mr Tree!

Tree Project - November

It’s a good job I did the flu edition of Tree Project. Know why?

In a month someone has stolen all his leaves!

Yep that’s right – in a mere 30-odd days his leaves all turned from green to golden and then fell off. Possibly helped by the horrific weather over the Halloween weekend.

A few of the brave still cling on for dear life though.

And those that perished haven’t gone far. They are lying on the floor to greet me when I go out of the front door each day.

I’m a bit worried now. I get the feeling that the next few months of Tree Project are going to be a bit samey...

It’s really quite inconsiderate of him. I mean he could have held on for another couple of months couldn’t he?

I’ll have a word.

Just to remind you, this was Mr Tree in September....

A lot can happen in a couple of months!

Tree Project - The Flu Edition

Welcome to a mid-month edition of Tree Project.

Since I've been spending a lot of time lying on the sofa over the past 5 days, I've spent a lot of time staring at Mr Tree, who's been looking in at me through the window and checking that I'm ok.

He's a nice tree like that.

And I suddenly realised that he's glowing. No it's not the temperature, this is no hallucination, he's definitely shimmery and golden. He's tranisitioned very sneakily into an autumn tree.

How did he do that? At the beginning of the month I was bemoaning the fact that he hadn't really changed that much at all, now he's gone and changed his whole aura on me!

There are a few green leaves left now, although the green, orange leaves and red berries make for a good combination.

He's still managing to keep hold of his leaves although a few more seem to have gravitated to the floor.
I know I should have just waited til the beginning of November for this post but I thought it was apt, seeing as he's been with me through the snotty times.

Thanks Mr Tree.

Tree Project - October

Things haven't changed too much when you look at tree as a whole (which was quite worrying as I realised that something I thought would be really cool suddenly seemed to be edging towards potential boringness).

However look a little more closely and you'll see there are a slightly fewer leaves on the tree and a few more leaves on the floor....

And on the tree, things are starting to look a bit less green and little more golden...

I sense change is afoot.

Tree project - the beginning

A couple of months after we had moved in together we were sat on the settee watching television and the boyfriend commented on how much the tree outside had changed since we'd been living here. It had gone from a barren, twiggy mess to having a million little buds adorning his (her?) limbs.

We live on a main road so greenery is few and far between. This tree peers in the window at us morning and night.

Unfortunately I must have missed the lesson in school where we learnt about nature because i am hopeless at naming trees and plants. I know it's not a conker tree and I know it's not a poplar tree - that's my tree repertoire exhausted. Anybody got any ideas?

Anyway when the boyfriend commented on the changes a little thought took seed in my mind. "You should take photos of the tree and document the changes."

However many of the ideas that are planted in my head, rarely come to fruition, which is why, four months later I've finally got around to starting it.

So here's the beginning - everybody meet Mr Tree (if you feel like coming up with a name for him then do let me know).

September - his leaves have become a deep, deep green and his red berries sparkle when the sun is shining, providing food for the many birds that swoop about outside, taunting the visitors when they come to stay.

See you in October!