trees, if you please

Paris, Je t'adore!

Oh! My dear friends. I've just returned from a vacation with my friend Emily to the oh-so-enchanting city of Paris! It really is as wonderful as in the movies and your dreams. Here is a look at how the Parisians do "les arbres."

These pretty smooth trees with the funny hanging fuzz balls are everywhere:

And I do believe I've correctly identified them as "London Plane" trees - a close relative - if not a hybrid of the American Sycamore and the "Oriental Plane."

Next, Some beautiful October leaves at the Jardin du Luxembourg:

The best place for tree sightings, however, was at the immensely beautiful and breathtakingly extravagant Palace of Versailles. In the gardens there were rows of citrus trees, "Dr. Seuss-like" clipped (topiary) trees (which should be considered "tree art," I think), "square" trees, tall graceful trees, and many more. (I don't know why the French are so obsessed with geometric trees. It's dreadfully unnatural, but fascinating, nonetheless). All were living amidst sculptures and fountains. Glorious! I could spend a week there! Indulge:

A tree falls in Brooklyn

It's a sad day on my block. Some stupid beer truck backed into one of the beloved trees across the street, knocking off a huge tree-sized branch and chunk of the tree. Leaves and branches fell all over, stopping traffic, and then some work men arrived with chain saws to finish the job. Now it is a soggy, sawdusty stump. Though, if you ask George, who works at Mailboxes on 5th (which is the shop the tree used to live in front of) it wasn't the beer truck's fault. The truck has been backing up in that exact location for years and years. But the heavy rain made the branch sag, which made the tree lean, which made the branch sag even lower.

George knows these things. Blame it on the rain.

Actually, I've recently realized that an even more beloved tree is gone. The one that used to live more directly across the street. It must have happened the day my building may-or-may-not-have-been hit by lightning. We heard/felt an extremely loud boom at the same time we saw a flash...and the next thing we knew, we saw branches in the street. I just realized the tree is completely gone. This one makes me even sadder. It was just out front of Happy Cleaners. So pretty. Fluffy white in the spring. We had just one lovely spring together. I'm hoping these trees have become mulch and will help other urban trees to survive and flourish. Here are some photos to mourn our loss. (Pink arrows indicate our fallen friends.)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! I have been enjoying the various trees of the season - mostly Christmas trees, of course - but the storm that rolled through last weekend blanketed the neighborhood trees in delightful piles of snow. For now...may you all take as much pleasure in my miniature apartment Christmas tree as I do. It has brought many smiles to my face so far this December...

:)

A Partridge in a Pear Tree

The holiday season is a time when you may hear an awful lot of singing about Pear Trees. With Partridges in them. I don't know why. There are conflicting stories about the origins of the Twelve Days of Christmas, and I don't want to join the debate.

But I do want to share my discovery of an espaliered Pear tree that lives in the glorious Cloisters in Manhattan. What, you may ask, is an espaliered tree? Well, I've just now learned that to espalier is to train a tree (generally a fruit tree, it seems) to grow in a pattern or shape, flat against a wall or lattice. A 2-D tree! Basically this might be perfect for my future Brooklyn garden. But it also seems to have been rather popular in medieval times. In any case, the Cloisters is a wonderful secret haven in northern Manhattan that is a home to amazing medieval European art and architecture. And trees. The gardens are not particularly big, but they are immensely charming and satisfying. And peaceful. Oh, to be a monk. And there are pear trees. Also, you can follow the Cloisters Garden blog here.

Christmas in May June July!

My hard drive died. And a bunch of other things happened. So...let's pretend it's the end of May, or perhaps the first week of June (when I started to write this post)...
...

I've just returned from a mountain vacation during which we spent some time meandering along the Blue Ridge Parkway. The views are breathtaking on a clear spring day and endless photo opportunities await either at the designated "lookout areas" or at any particular point if you dare pull over to the side of the sometimes frighteningly narrow mountain road and flash your hazard lights while you jump out to snap a photo of a perfect double rainbow with a mountain backdrop, which is exactly what we did as we were driving through sun showers one particular afternoon.

After a grand time spent in and around Asheville, NC and then a quick stay in Boone, our journey homeward led us through more beautiful mountain roads where we found ourselves pleasantly surprised in the relatively remote region of Ashe County, North Carolina.

There we were, driving through the mountains, when we came around a corner, and passed a Christmas tree farm. Not too unusual...but then another, and another! Ten! Twenty! Thirty! More! Acres and acres of Christmas trees everywhere! It was as if we'd stumbled upon the "Santa's workshop" of Christmas trees. They were on every hill, around every bend, speckling every field. It was joyous and curious. I had to take some photos and then Google the phenomenon when I returned home.

Turns out there is a North Carolina Christmas Tree Association (NCCTA) and their mission is to "promote 'real' Christmas Trees through marketing and education." Hmm. This is a mission I can probably stand behind, though, while idealistic and charming, it seems vaguely wrong and definitely weird. The Fraser fir is the species that all the tree farmers seem to be growing (so that's what you see in my photos) and I learned that North Carolina has an estimated 50 million Fraser firs Christmas trees througout the state. I'm pretty sure we saw 30 million. There are all sorts of interesting Christmas tree facts and info about the Fraser fir at their site, here, like: North Carolina is 2nd in the nation for Christmas tree harvesting; and at least 10 North Carolina trees have graced the White House since 1966.

Who knew there was such a flourishing tree industry in the mountains of North Carolina? You cut your own at many of the farms, or, there's the option to place a wholesale order for trees - if you happen to have a well-trafficked city sidewalk where you'd like to begin selling the "perfect" tree this December.

Here's a screen shot of a search for Christmas tree farms in North Carolina (We drove straight through that upper left corner of the map):

READ MORE » Christmas in May June July!

The Grandpa Tree

This wonderful little tree has popped up in this blog before more than once, in fact and so I suppose I should admit that I have a distinct fondness for this little crabapple tree that sits in my parents' back yard, overlooking a corner of the deck. We call it the Grandpa Tree, because it was planted in honor and in memory of my mom's father. Every time I venture home it provides new smiles and photos. This past weekend the berries were glistening in the sun and looked particularly perfect. Enjoy!

Ultimate Field Guide to the Trees of the Big Apple

For a tree-lover and blogger-of-trees, I certainly don't know many scientific tree facts, nor do I know how to identify most trees. Thus, I picked up "New York City Trees, A Field Guide for the Metropolitan Area" at the Brooklyn Book Festival in September. I'm super excited about it. The cover promises "How to identify trees;" "Best places to see trees;" "Official NYC Great Trees;" and "Ten tree walks." I can't wait to walk all ten.

In other news: the Christmas tree lady arrived this week with her trees from Canada, and has parked herself, as usual, in front of the neighborhood Key Food. I love walking slowly by and breathing in the piney-wonderful air. It's holiday season!

Best state quarters

While rummaging through a bowl of change to find laundry quarters the other day, I was pleased to see a large oak tree on the back of the Connecticut state quarter. This piqued my curiosity as to how many of our 50 state quarters are graced with the presence of trees. Here are the winners. Trees! You can view the rest of the 50 U.S. state quarters here. (Granted, there are a couple other states with trees in the background Colorado, for one but I was much more impressed with the prominence trees were given on these four).

Portrait of a Tree

While this post takes a look at some incredibly stunning tree photography by artist Myoung Ho Lee (tree art posts are some of my favorites), it is personally devastating. Let me explain. For some time now, I have been cultivating a super-secret idea for a photography project that I'd like to undertake "some day" when I get the time and funding. Just last week, I disclosed my idea to Kevin and we were discussing the feasibility. After I listed off all my hang-ups and excuses, he said "apply for a grant! just go for it! do it!" And I was pleased that he liked my super-secret idea. But that's when it first occurred to me to do a Google search for "tree portraits."

Trees have personality! Character! They communicate. And they are immensely beautiful. And to attempt to capture their beauty and form by constructing an enormous backdrop and then photographing the solitary tree ?as if in a studio, but still out in the middle of nature ?well. There you have it. My secret creative project idea. Laid out to you before it's even been done...er...except that...It HAS been done.

A quick internet search brought me to the Tree exhibition at Yossi Milo Gallery, and there I saw these wonderful photos by Myoung Ho Lee that I wish I had taken. Here was my own idea, already executed - beautifully - by a South Korean gentleman just 4 years my senior. I was devastated. AND. To make matters just a little bit worse, I realized the show was last year, right here in New York. I could have gone.

I don't know. I guess I'm being overly dramatic. I'm just sad I'll never be able to see this project through and get credit for it. Or, maybe I'll do a similar project some day - but would it be seen as copyright infringement? Whatever. You heard it here first. I had the idea before I saw his work, though it will never seem original to the world. Oh well.

This has NOT kept me from truly appreciating the beauty of Mr. Lee's photography. I love it. Read more about it here.

Bravo, fine sir. Your trees are lovely.

Sun and Shadows

MLK day was beautiful! It was warm enough to flavor the air with a hint of "spring" and the ground was all squishy. I walked through muddy fields in the park, inhaling the earthy breeze and stepping on shadows. The sun was working it's magic, painting stretchy dark extensions of the trees across the grass. I couldn't help but admire and photograph them, looking down at the trees, rather than up. Enjoy!

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