Garden of Thought

Poetic Trees

Sun, 26 Feb 2017 15:35:48 GMT

I've been reading an interesting book on how various plants were first introduced to North America and how they became established, hybridized, etc. over time. Under the entry on weeping willows I was enchanted to find the first were brought to the US by an admirer of Alexander Pope, an Anglican clergyman, philosopher and author named Samuel Johnson. Enamoured with the tree, he was gifted with cuttings from Pope's weeping willow by his house along the Thames. He planted these at his home in Stratford, Connecticut along the Housatonic River. They grew well and he handed out cuttings as gifts to those who admired this graceful, foreign tree with its poetic associations. It is believed all of the early weeping willows in America came from Alexander Pope's tree. In the later 1700s there is record of some being brought as nursery stock from England, but the oldest belong to poets.

It made me think of how a friend once sent me an acorn from the old oak in Sherwood Forest and how I treasured that little piece of legend. Wouldn't it be lovely to be able to plant an arboretum of trees associated just with poets and poetic ballads?

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Apple plumes

Sat, 23 Jul 2016 18:19:56 GMT

Asked a friend if she'd like some apples. She said "Yes! I'd like 10 please. If you have enough."
Look up at my Apples, current Apple Level 200 trees.
"Right. Ten apples."

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Apples already

Wed, 22 Jul 2015 22:13:13 GMT

Doing a bit of raking in the yard and discovered my apple trees are ALREADY dropping ripe apples... in July! My initial reaction was "noooooooooo!" I am so NOT ready to have to deal with apples again, we haven't even used up the ones in the freezer from last fall.

Oh well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em (or consume 'em).

Made three apple-blueberry pies with brandy this afternoon to kick off the early apple consumption for this year, plenty more where those came from.

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Time to play Pick Up Sticks

Fri, 31 Oct 2014 00:45:39 GMT

We had a tiny blip of the winds from a hurricane out at sea going by and the resulting few hours of sudden strong wind gusts were moderately dramatic. We were playing Scrabble and watching chunks of tree blowing by while a veritable barrage of pinecones rattled on the roof and bounced around on the deck. The end result in my yard is the appearance as if a troop of ambulatory Christmas trees wandered in and exploded.

Sigh. Time to get the wheelbarrow out and play pick-up-sticks.

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Has it rained enough yet?

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 17:18:05 GMT

Wah! - I had to miss Fic Rush. :-P Hope I can catch the next one - sounds like much fun was had by all.

The rain seems to be neverending here, though I suppose that IS par for the course for winter. Splorped out among the poplars in the deluge to clean up a large dead poplar branch that the wind brought down across the driveway - I wonder if my rather deep bootprints in the mud will still show up when it all dries up in the summer. Snowdrops are blooming! My crocuses are starting to show color! *bounces in anticipation of early flowers*

Also a parakeet victory - Been gradually moving the two birdcages closer together over the past month until they were snugged right up side-by-side and within a couple days the birds were spending all their time sitting right next to each other, trying to reach through the bars (awww) so yesterday was the Grand Reveal - I set them up with open doors so they could go from one cage to the other if they so desired.

By noon, I had all three of them happily sitting together in Sherbet's cage - and now Freckles and Millie won't go back to their old cage, they seem to have Officially Moved In with Sherbet. Maybe she just has better toys. ;-) So nice to have them all happy and only one cage to clean each day instead of two - Yay for non-lonely budgies!

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