The Goblin Tree!

Just in time for Halloween..I have found a goblin in the yard! This goblin sits there night and day without ever a single person but me noticing him! It is not as if he is trying to hide or even be evasive in any way, he is just so mundane that no one sees him. In one of the large Black Gum Trees in the front yard, I see a face! It is quite the large face at that! There are two massive eyes and a huge gaping mouth! I must admit, this goblin does have an impressively blank stare, though! I am so tempted to go out with a bit of paint and color in the eyes and maybe a few teeth just to give it a tad more definition. Then perhaps others will notice my Goblin Tree. Or perhaps the face is only visible to someone with a very vivid imagination. Back in the day, Granddaddy would take me around the yard and point out faces in trees and flowers. He would always point to a tree or a flower and say "Do you see the face looking at you?" At first this frightened me..I did not want faces staring at me from the trees and flowers! That was just a little too creepy! Then he showed me how amusing it was to hunt for the faces that only we could see! It became a great game between the two of us and I would always try to find a face before he did! My imagination was set in gear far back when I was a small child! This game always stuck in my head and to this day, I have a tendency to find faces everywhere. This old Black Gum Tree just happens to be the latest of many but it also happens to be one of the most defined.

The face is actually made up of scars in the bark of the tree. Six years ago, Hurricane Katrina damaged a good many of the trees on the Gulf Coast and many died. My Goblin Tree was one of the survivors. It received so many bumps and bruises but was a tough old tree as Black Gums tend to be. The scars are healing but will always be evident and it is just a freak of nature that these scars are in the formation of a face. I named it the Goblin Tree simply because nothing else fit. I stood looking at it the other day and the imagination started soaring again. The Goblin Tree is facing southward towards the Bay and I wondered if it is watching the horizon for future storms. (Tonight, however, we have a strong North wind and the temperatures are dropping quickly..maybe it just has its back to the wind to stay a bit warmer!) My Goblin Tree..another thing that makes this Bayou a bit more endearing!