Stop Shaking My Tree

Toad in the woods
Toad in the woods

Sam was playing music for the members of the Friendly Home when we stopped by. He was playing guitar in the sun room and about half of my mom’s group was asleep in their chairs. Sam threw a ball to the ones that were awake and had them roll it on the floor. The ball had numbers on it and whatever number came up Sam would play a song from that decade. He had the sheet music for hundreds of songs in his iPad. His version of “Leaving on a Jet Plane” was so sleepy I almost fell asleep. But then he’d pull out an old chestnut like Irving Berlin’s “If You Don’t Want My Peaches, You’d Better Stop Shaking My Tree” and I’d be singing along.

I took my first walk in the woods today in over a month. Just how did that Wales player in this morning’s Euro Cup match get back on the pitch in six weeks after a broken leg? I went down the hill I tore my calf muscle on and couldn’t get over how much lusher everything was. The Jack in the Pulpits were still standing erect. An old rotted oak had fallen right across the path. We spooked a couple of Pileated woodpeckers that may have been mating and we walked by a deer that was so comfortable it couldn’t be bothered to get up. And then we came across this friendly toad and watched him for a bit.

2 Comments

2 Replies to “Stop Shaking My Tree”

  1. You just blew my mind, telling me “If you don’t want my peaches..” is by Irving Berlin.. whom I associate with “White Christmas” and a few other catchy songs of a certain vintage. When I googled the list of songs he wrote… Mind Blown again! What a prolific composer. Such a range.. many songs I’m familiar with, but had no idea he’d written. Thank you for the impetus to find out more about the man who wrote “Gentlemen prefer Blondes”… You may be more than familiar with the list, but I’m including a link for you.
    http://www.songfacts.com/category-songs_written_by_irving_berlin.php

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