Hail the Mighty Oak

Latvian song at Summer Solstice in honor of the Oak Tree.

Comment by nauriss from 4 years ago:

 Before the lyrics, I’ll try to explain a few words:

Līgo - sway (name of the first day of Midsummer) Jānis - Diety of fire (name of the second day of Midsummer) (just in plural - Jāņi) Oak tree, oak tree, Your big width, Three days sun came, Yet couldn’t come. Oak tree, oak tree, Your big bushiness, Three days Partridge came, Yet couldn’t come. Oak tree, oak tree, Your big greatness, Daughters/Girls came singing, While breaking branches for the flowers crowns. Oak tree, oak tree, Your big eld, I was born, found you, I will die, you will stay. Gather along children of Jānis, Under the bushy oak tree, Under the bushy oak tree, There’s the Jānis’ place of honor.

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Glassmine Falls overlook, Blue Ridge Parkway

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"If you believe the earth is sacred, you have to do something to stop greedy and stupid people from destroying the very life-support systems that sustain us." 

- Starhawk, from her invitation to her 75th birthday celebration June 17, 2026.

A very wonderful book, The Comfort of Crows, by Margaret Renkl, offers some great words about oak trees.

"At the base of each new tree, Haywood sets a five-gallon bucket with a hole he drilled into the bottom. This was my mother's approach for keeping young plants alive, a poor man's drip-irrigation system. The slow release of water allows the tree's roots time to take up moisture. As it grows, Haywood moved the bucket farther out, coaxing the roots to reach, giving them a reason to set themselves firmly into the earth. Once a tree is well established, it's time to plant another.

and

"...more and more I ponder words like bounty and replete and enough. I think of what we are losing from this world and of what we will leave behind when we ourselves are lost. The trees. the stories. The people who love us and who know we love them, who will carry our love into the world after we are gone."

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Art in Bloom - Alchemy of Clay blog has some photos each day for this year's display of art with floral arrangements at the Black Mountain Center for the Arts