The Month of the Ash ended yesterday, on the 17th of March, if we believe Robert Graves (see here) and other sources as well (see or here). The choice of which ash tree to visit for the third image in my tree calendar was obvious since several weeks; I knew there was an ash standing on the shore in Kaivopuisto Park near the pier and the cafeteria, so I did not have to guess and decipher the bare branches of the tree in winter shape. I passed by several times and noticed how the branches were too high to sit on, had a vague idea of hanging from the branch, in the same manner I once did hang from the branch of an old pine tree in Kalvola, in Year of the Dog in Kalvola – Calendar. But that time I visited the tree once a month for a year and edited all the moments of hanging to be one continuous movement, which was funny in some way. To hang from a branch real-time without any tools to help me would be impossible, except for a very short moment. So I had to do something else. I realized this weekend would be the last chance to record the ash, so on Saturday I went to do my regular visit to the tree on the hill and then walked down to the shore to visit the ash and see what I could do. I took some photos of the tree from various angles and found a perspective that felt quite allright. After one small test image I decided to simply stand and lean on the tree, with my hand on a broken branch. I also tried to hang, mainly out of a sense of duty – at least I could try, couldn’t I – but had no power to hang there for long enough. After I packed my things and walked toward the park I turned around to take one more snapshot with my phone, and realized that the ash tree looked quite beautiful when seen in full from a distance. So I did another version, recording the image across the path, fully aware that I would get all the passers-by included in the image, too. Thus I have two versions again, Ash in March 1 and Ash in March 2. I actually edited a shorter version of the latter, removing the passersby as well.
 

 

 

 

 
I took some still images before I started recording, and they show the ash from various angles: