hammock ~

Ever wonder why your mind wanders?  Well I do ~ because it happens to me ALL the time ... almost to the point where sometimes I have to question my sanity!  I swear.  I'm the biggest daydreamer and can lose my train of thought at the drop of a dime.  I can be doing something and right in the middle of it my mind goes off wandering and before I know it I'm off a totally whole new direction.

I'm blaming it on the hammock. 

It either has to be from all the daydreaming I did as a kid in a hammock or from the knocks on the noggin ~ from all the times I fell out of a hammock.

I was surfing the internet ... I came across this photo:

 Well... that got me thinking about hammocks.  I have many fond memories of laying in a hammock, looking at the clouds and tree tops and daydreaming my time away.  We always took a hammock with us when camping to hang between the trees. 

Then my mind goes wandering off to laying in the hammock once down by my Aunt Margie and Uncle Earl's place one time when I was quite young with my Dad.  I must have been around six or seven years old. 

Dad was always teaching us kids about nature.  Always pointing things out to us ~ teaching us to look beyond the obvious.  Well on this particular afternoon I learned the difference between two trees, the Common Poplar and the Balsam Poplar, aka. Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar.  The hammock that we were laying in was tied between a Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar and a Common Poplar.  The perfect set-up for a lesson to given.

~ leaves of the Common Poplar ~

 ~ leaves of the Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar ~

"The Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar", according to my Dad, "wasn't as popular of a poplar as the Common Poplar" in our area.   

Try saying that ten times fast.  

"The Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar wasn't as popular of a poplar as the Common Poplar."

"The Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar wasn't as popular of a poplar as the Common Poplar."

 "The Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar wasn't as popular of a poplar as the Common Poplar."

 "The Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar wasn't as popular of a poplar as the Common Poplar."

"The Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar wasn't as popular of a poplar as the Common Poplar."

 "The Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar wasn't as popular of a poplar as the Common Poplar."

 "The Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar wasn't as popular of a poplar as the Common Poplar."

"The Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar wasn't as popular of a poplar as the Common Poplar."

 "The Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar wasn't as popular of a poplar as the Common Poplar."

 "The Balm-Of-Gilead Poplar wasn't as popular of a poplar as the Common Poplar."

The leaves of the Balm-Of-Gilead were a tad bit larger than the Common Poplar and not as shiney and showy. 

BUT... there was a big difference ~ the smell.  

Ahhhhhh... the sweet smell of the leaves of the Balm-Of-Gilead and the sticky resin on the back of the leaves.  The same resin that was collected way back in biblical times from the Land of Gilead to be made into perfume and a salve or balm for healing.

That is what Dad pointed out to me that day.  

Laying in a hammock.

Until next time ...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel