talking to trees

Someone recently compared me to a fig tree. I, of course, immediately thought of the strangler fig, but was reassured that that wasn't quite what she meant. This and the fact that many of our trees are raining fruit this week, has left me pondering trees.

I love trees. I love their size, their quiet, their enduring nature. I find myself thanking them for their fruits, their seeds, their shade, their wood, for feeding the mushrooms when they rot, for feeding the birds and insects throughout the year, for providing habitat, protection, nourishment. For their beauty.

I think it makes a difference. The Rose of Venezuela throws out incredible oblong seeds that are prized here on the farm. The seeds take a year to form in their pods and are expelled with a crack and twist - easy to miss, and the reason we have a grove of saplings forming around the mother tree rather than a line of potted seedlings in the nursery. The days I walk with the dogs I talk with the Rose of Venezuela. I ask her for her seeds, and always, always if I ask she reveals them one by one half hidden, half buried in the grass and leaf litter around her. Today I found 14, one after the other. Just for the asking. And the thanking.

Rose of Venezuela pods and flower:

I like fig trees.

well, it's been some time . . .

over a year in fact. I was thinking I would sneak an entry in at the beginning of August and maybe no one would notice, but really it's been over a year since I wrote on this blog. Shame on me. It's not that I haven't been writing - just elsewhere. Anyway, I'd like to reconnect. So for your viewing pleasure (if anyone is still out there!) here are some toucans:

The toucans are all in a tree planted especially for them, behind the workshop. The farmer doesn't know what the tree is, nor has he seen it anywhere else, but one happened to start by the house and he realized that the toucans loved the purple berries. After many attempts to start it from seed he finally tied a branch to the house and started a couple of air-layers, one made it. He planted it out in a prime viewing spot and this year it started producing fruit. What a treat to see the toucans visit! Three of them came and spent a few minutes picking through the small berries. The tree up at the house has much larger fruit so we have high hopes for the new addition to our landscape.