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Post 1556. Sunday June 24

Sunday Photo Fiction

Before starting I feel I must thank all of those that read my recent 100-word story 'An Empty Bottle'. In eleven years of writing on this blog, never before has one of my little tales received so many visits! Thank you also for the dozens of encouraging comments you left in its wake.

A child picked up a little acorn and planted it on a grassy bank. Soon after a sturdy sapling reached for the sun, soaked up rain and steadfastly resisted the wind. In time became a mighty oak. Over the years it looked on as successive generations came and went.

Children climbed branches that played host to birds which wove intricate nests amid the twigs and leaves. Hearts were carved into its bark by couples declaring their undying love. Squirrels scampered up and down carrying cargos of nuts whilst brightly painted woodpeckers rat-a-tatted hollows in the mighty oak’s massive trunk.

From the coldest winters to the hottest summers, it took everything in its stride never failing to produce a canopy of green with every new spring and a palette of extraordinary colours in autumn.

But recently it’s received a threat, for the field which has been its home for a hundred years is to become home to a hundred new dwellings.

A child picks up a little acorn from beneath the fated tree and plants it on another grassy bank. Over the next hundred years, it will grow into a mighty oak that his children and his children’s children will climb, lovers will carve and creatures make their home.

For Sunday Photo Fiction where the picture prompt is provided by Eric Wicklund