Monday, February 20, 2012

Monday's Nature Quote

The mortal who has never enjoyed a speaking acquaintance with some individual tree is to be pitied; for such an acquaintance, once established, naturally ripens into a friendliness that brings serene comfort to the human heart, whatever the heart of the tree may or may not experience.

~Anna Botsford Comstock, Trees at Leisure, 1916
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12 comments:

  1. RoxieFebruary 20, 2012 at 6:05 AM

    " . . . speaking acquaintance with some individual tree . . ."   Anthropomorphisizing at its best!

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  2. Alice LynnFebruary 20, 2012 at 12:45 PM

    I remember a favorite tree, a transparent apple tree that afforded not only the best apples ever, but a wonder place to sit out of sight and view the neighborhood.  Thanks for opening that memory for me.

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  3. BethiemFebruary 20, 2012 at 1:55 PM

     You never spoke to a tree?

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  4. BethiemFebruary 20, 2012 at 1:57 PM

    My favorite for reading in was an ancient Royal Anne cherry in my back yard in SE Portland. And yes, Roxie, I spoke to it. It never mattered that it didn't answer in terms I could understand.

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  5. DJan StewartFebruary 20, 2012 at 3:42 PM

    I too remember an old tree stump that had obvious been a huge thing once long ago, and many shoots had come up around the base that offered a hiding place for me. I loved it. Thanks for the memory... 

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  6. BarbFebruary 20, 2012 at 4:54 PM

    Until the tree dies, then it's such a heartbreak.  They do speak if you listen.

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  7. Rosemary LombardFebruary 21, 2012 at 8:37 AM

    A few days ago I read about a fascinating tree project by artist Dan Shepherd. He had people tell their special tree stories, then draw the trees. Then he superimposed translucent versions of their drawings over the real trees and photographed them. The pictures, with the people's captions, are priceless, as are the short essays others have sent in about their special trees.  See  http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/articles/article/6602/ on the website of the wonderful Orion magazine.

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  8. Patricia LichenFebruary 21, 2012 at 6:55 PM

    Oh, I'm loving all these replies from folks with their own special trees  (or in your case, lovely stump)! 
    Thanks!

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  9. Patricia LichenFebruary 21, 2012 at 6:59 PM

    Oh fabulous, Rosemary! Thanks so much for the link!
    Anyone who checks it out--watch for the little captions at the bottom left of the slide show.

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  10. Rosemary LombardFebruary 21, 2012 at 10:14 PM

    When we moved into a house in the Bay Area, we found a stump perhaps two feet wide against the garage, under the eaves: a redwood. Oops. Not the best choice for the site. I suspect the planter was the person who planted a Siberian elm under the high-power wires. "Fast growing," the catalogs used to say. Yes in both cases. I  like to research the preferences and futures for p0tential trees I'm considering to plant.   But I would have loved a +++++++++++hideaway stump, too.

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  11. Rosemary LombardFebruary 22, 2012 at 8:28 AM

    Here's the morning's accidental tree find, and I can't resist passing it on. WILD APPLES, a nature, lit, and art journal coming out of Massachusetts, has samples of its new issue, "Root, Trunk, Bough," at http://www.wildapples.org/index.php. Sadly, it's the last issue for this journal, which should have lived as long as some of our favorite trees.

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  12. RoxieFebruary 24, 2012 at 6:15 AM

    I was a child who never spoke unless spoken to.

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