mimosa, anyone?

How great is this tree? It's Dr. Seuss-inspired (my favorite kind!) When I first saw one, it was located curiously close to a delicious local sushi restaurant, so I decided it must be Asian. Then, I began to see them along the road as I was driving to work, and realized that was a stupid assumption. I was trying to imagine how I could have never noticed these wonderful pink powder-puff fluffs growing on these local trees, and decided to do a little research. What is it? Where is it from?
Turns out, it IS Asian!! or, to be more precise, it is native to both Asia and the Middle East. It's called a Mimosa or silk tree. And birds, bees, butterflies and hummingbirds like it.
I have ALSO discovered that this is an "invasive tree" and many folks are up-in-arms about people who plant it in this part of the world. Apparently it re-seeds quite easily and can be a bit of a pain. But I can't imagine anything quite as charming as an overabundance of pink powder-puff-fluff trees - even if they ARE invasive.
My photos are all rather close-up because I didn't like the surroundings...but there's an entire pool devoted to the Mimosa at Flickr, and a couple better overviews here and here.

Heard a Who today...

...living on a speck on this little fluffy thing. in Whoville.


Also, went to the JC Raulston Arboretum.
It was really great until a thunderstorm came up and we ran for cover and then lightning struck something and the power went out in the education center. Kevin likened it to Jurassic Park, for some reason. Something to do with the "fossil" leaves in the stone wall of the building and the fact that the power went out and...I don't know...let all the dinosaurs loose?
Whatever.
It was a good day's fun.
Please excuse my inexcusable lapse in posting.

to touch a tree

I am fascinated by texture and surface quality. I like to touch things that look interesting. I love to feel the paint brushes in an art store, touch the rocks in a science museum, handle all the beads in the make-your-own-jewelry stores. Tasseled lamps and fringe are unbelievably satisfying to me. The little rug samples in hardware stores...silk and velvet in fabric stores...ceramic dishes, and the patterns painted on to them. Flowers with dense centers or fluffy dandelions. Shiny leaves and spongy moss. Do Not Touch signs irritate me. If something begs to be touched, why not? I even feel compelled to touch cacti in a botanical garden. Smooth, slippery, rough, patterned, sharp, hard, rubbery, cold, soft...I'm very tactile. So, it may come as no surprise that I like to touch trees. This tree has amazing surface texture, and I had to restrain myself from pulling it apart. Of course I would never want to damage the tree, but I bet it would be as satisfying as peeling off old wallpaper. And think how smooth and new underneath all that curly bark!

The day of the trees

Yesterday was Arbor Day. The day devoted to planting and caring for trees and a perfect day to remember how important and wonderful they are. I was remiss in posting yesterday, and I wish I could say I was out planting a tree, but I don't have a piece of land on which to do so. So I admired them, instead. (And the best I can do is tell you that today I planted tomatoes).

Let's reflect on Arbor Day for a moment. Our beloved Julius Sterling Morton (along with Robert Furnas) founded this glorious day. Interestingly, Arbor day sprung from the plains of Nebraska which were distinctly lacking trees in the late 1800s. The new pioneers (J. Sterling Morton in particular) saw the importance of bringing trees to this flat, hot and windy land. Morton proposed a tree-planting holiday, and it was officially proclaimed on April 8, 1874.


On the first Arbor Day, "prizes were offered to counties and individuals for planting properly the largest number of trees...It was estimated that more than one million trees were planted in Nebraska on the first Arbor Day."

Now, over 100 years later (after many forests and trees have been chopped down) the Nature Conservancy has launched a Plant a Billion Trees campaign, to restore 2.5 million acres of land (and plant 1,000,000,000 trees) in the next 7 years. You can help! I can help! It's only $1 a tree (I think the minimum is 10 trees). So you give a little money, help save the world. And think of the trees! Always think of the trees. If nothing else, check out their cool site where you can watch the little trees sprout and learn about trees that you didn't even know existed! Like the Ice Cream Bean Tree.


Arbor Day is not like other holidays. Each of those reposes on the past, while Arbor Day proposes for the future.

– Julius Sterling Morton

Earth Day – what can you do?

In honor of trees on Earth Day, here are a few practical things you can do to help preserve our environment and save a few trees in the meantime:

GreenDimes will actually pay YOU $1 for them to help you stop your junk mail. Why? Because they care about trees and the earth THAT MUCH. Of course, it's not very earth-friendly for them to mail you a check for $1 so you also have the option of having them plant a tree with your dollar. OR...the even better thing to do is to pay the one-time fee of $20 and GreenDimes will automatically take you off lots of mailing lists AND plant 5 trees. If you'd rather not pay, you can manually remove yourself from various catalog and junk mail lists. You may have to go directly to each company's website to do so, but GreenDimes makes it easy. Also, be sure to sign and mail back any postcards from GreenDimes, because some companies require a signature for removal from their mailing list. Do it now! Save trees here.

If you are looking for another way to help get more trees planted on our planet, but perhaps you live in a city or aren't able to plant one yourself (or maybe you just want to help fund the future forests of America)...you're in luck! These folks will do the planting for you! Every single dollar you donate plants a tree. It's so great! Instead of springing for that $4 latte four times, you could fund the planting of 16 trees. It's such an important investment and it's so relatively inexpensive that you practically can't resist. There is a $15 minimum so you'll be funding the planting of at least 15 trees. Your own little grove someday.
There's also a nifty how-to if you need help planting your own tree.

Thanks to Lauren for the very Earth-friendly tree links.

Spring!!

It's spring here in Carolina and I've finally come up for air (Hurray! Life's been more than a little busy as of late).
Today I had a chance to get out and take some photos, and I'll tell you what...just smelling the spring air and looking at all the nature makes me giddy. I love this time of year when there's bright new color everywhere, and funny things hanging from trees and pretty flowers growing from branches and it's all just lovely and great.
Trees! Trees! Trees!

palm trees, if you please

In honor of Palm Sunday, let me introduce you to my new favorite tree. Perhaps it's because I grew up in a cold climate, but for some reason I was completely delighted and enthralled with the palm trees when we visited the beach a few weekends ago. Palm trees! They're so weird! furry, pointy, sharp, soft, green, brown, stringy, smooth...so many contradictions in one tree! Ok, these are probably just a momentary, when-I'm-at-the-beach favorite.

But so great! And it turns out there's also a lonely little palm tree in the back yard of my brother's new home in Pensacola...and I must say, he sounded about as excited about it as I would be. Hurray!

**YOUR TREES** [Icy Winter hangin' on...]

Special thanks to my dad for these gorgeous tree photos!
If these icy shots weren't so beautiful, I'd almost feel guilty that there are daffodils popping up all over the place around here. Not an icicle in sight. (I wish we'd had at least ONE ice or snow storm this winter...)
Winter always hangs around longer in Upstate New York. But at least the sun was shining after the ice storm!

Tree font

Considering that I am a graphic designer, I suppose it's appropriate to discuss fonts for a minute. Frequently the word "font" is misused, ("typeface" is usually more accurate) but since we're dealing with trees rather than typography, I suppose we can just call this an "icon font." The one above is appropriately named "Tree assortment." If you'd like to know how your name looks spelled out in little trees, by all means, go here.

Below, an example of the charming font named "Tree."


Makes me wish I was in a treehouse with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

colorless

Have you ever walked around in a cloud-like state and attributed it to lack of sleep, and then the next day attributed it to the weather, and the next day to what you ate, and then the following week you assumed it was due to lack of exercise and then the next month assumed it was your dysfunctional work environment, not to mention the house is a mess and there are so many things to do and people to write to and places to go, and for heaven's sake, why is the cloud still hanging around your head when you've been sleeping and eating and running? And by the time the trees are fully bare and then starting to sprout again, your head has permanently buried itself in the cloud surrounding it, and will remain stuck right where it is. And when will the trees bloom colors again?

Oh, sweet trees.

Grow this!

Imagine my complete and utter delight to come upon this little treasure in a local independent toy store. A Magic Tree! Crystals! Watch it grow! In a few hours! There was absolutely no way I could pass it up, and so I decided to document the process of growing my first Magic Tree. What could be easier? You mix the crystal powder with a tiny bit of water...pour it into a dish...and in a few hours you have a magic tree. And it looks rather like a Dr. Seuss Tree, don't you think?








Magic! You actually CAN watch the crystals grow, which is completely awesome.
Important things to note: (taken from the back of the package)
1) COMPLETELY ARTIFICIAL
2) Adults and children of all ages will be delighted to receive this small treasure.
3) Miniature saucer not included.
4) Mailable.
5) It will even grow in a refrigerator.

By now you are undoubtedly wondering "where can I get myself one of these magical wonders with the imperative on the package, demanding that I grow one?"
Look no further than magic garden, where you can also purchase a Magic Dinosaur or a completely real, not-at-all-artificial Peanut Tree. I have 2 on order, and look forward to also growing peanuts.