We bought our Illinois home (built in 1950) in1975. Our daughter and husband then bought that home in 2006 when we moved to Hawaii and we bought my mother's home in Hawaii after we renovated it. Tiffany wanted to move back to her childhood home because she'd always loved the neighborhood and had friends here.
Art and I were happy that we'd now have a familiar place to go back to for our visits. This is all just a prelude to this post about our trees.
Art LOVES trees. That's why he's not happy that we don't have many tall trees in our neighborhood in Hawaii.
When the kids were in grade school. I think Keola might have been in 4th grade. Maybe. The school had passed out little pine trees for Arbor Day. This seedling was very little. It must have been about 9 inches tall. We planted it together in the little area between our house and the neighbor's. I was very dubious that it would grow much. I thought it would get trampled by raccoons or skunks or whatever.
Well... I guess it survived. On several visits since we noticed it had grown a bit.
But what a surprise when we went back this time! And the most amazing thing we saw? Two pine cones!!!
Tif told us that the swamp oak tree had also produced acorns for the first time this year. What is it about 2023?
She sent this photo of the acorns that had fallen on the ground.
We have a lot of trees because we have over 40 acres, and the back of our property consists of canyons that aren't good for anything, so the banks are covered with trees. My favorite tree, though, isn't too far from our house. It isn't beautiful; any storm that comes breaks limbs off it. But anytime there's a breeze, it whispers. It's a cottonwood. I love the sound it makes when there's a breeze.
ReplyDeleteHow nice to have that connection.
ReplyDeleteI have three acres of trees here where I live and probably a hundred acres of them down on the farm in total. Yet I am constantly planting them all the time. Not only do I plant them in my yard but I also pick up acorns and stick them in convenient holes in the ground. Many probably never grow but I hope some of them do.
ReplyDeleteWe do have a lot of large trees in the older part of the neighbourhood. I planted some trees in our backyard in the late 90's which have become quite large also.
ReplyDeleteWe have a lot of trees and most are pine trees. They are at the back of the property in case of fire because they can burst into flame at the smallest spark. I have them on my blog today for Wordless Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteWe have tons of trees around here and big ones. The Evergreen State, you know. ;)
ReplyDeleteWe too have many trees, and a lot of them are pine trees. Your photos are beautiful, as usual! I can always count on your blog to “hook” me with your awesome photos and interesting happenings!
ReplyDeleteI hope all is well with you and the family. Wishing you a great rest of the week!
As you probably know we have several majestic Douglas Firs and two enormous Western Red Cedars. They were big when we built our house in 1978.
ReplyDeleteWhat a delightful find! Our chestnut tree didn't produce many nuts. :'(
ReplyDeleteThis year our neighbor's huge mango tree is non stop with mangoes. Tons of flowers, and their yard is constantly littered with fallen little mangoes. The ones that survive grow big and fat and too high and too many to pick. I never saw it like this in the 40 years we've lived here. Even our mango tree gave us 10 mangoes (lol, each was so precious) and lately one side of the tree has many many flower branches for an anticipated big mango harvest in a few months.
ReplyDeleteI wonder what it is about this year with acorns, pine cones, and mangoes galore.
My uncle's Pirie and Hadens did not produce as much as we hoped, but I'm sure it's because they've trimmed the tree really far back. I wonder what kind of tree your neighbor has. Ten mangoes would make me happy. :-)
DeleteOur neighbor's tree has been grafted with 5 different mango breeds. One is apple, and I am not sure of the others - but not common names to me. Some of the mangoes are not great - stringy and not sweet, some are sweet like Pirie but not as smooth. It has become a problem for them with so much rubbish. I will be sure to share our Piries with you when our bumper crop ripens!
DeleteI thought mango season was over. Maybe there's hope for my uncle's tree.
DeleteYes. here in the Evergreen state we have so many wonderful old growth trees, as well as the usual middle aged ones. I love trees, too. So nice to see a tree that exists because you planted it yourself. :-)
ReplyDeleteWhen my girls were in elementary school they came home with "saplings" one Arbor Day. In truth, they were sticks, but we dutifully planted them, one in the front yard and one in the side yard. A few years ago I drove through the old neighborhood. What was a sparkling new subdivision when we lived there had become a forested, stable neighborhood, All those Arbor Day twigs had become mighty maples and oaks.
ReplyDeleteMy neighborhood is well treed. The city plants trees along the boulevard in new subdivisions. We are also close to a undeveloped area with heavy tree cover.
ReplyDeleteWe have two ancient maples in the back yard. We are awash in maple spinners. This year they seem worse than they've ever been.
ReplyDeleteWe have an abundance of deciduous trees here in our SE Washington town. Most of them transplants and non-native. I think the reason they took so well is that we have an abundance of small above ground steams in the area. Water in a desert. They are very pretty right now,
ReplyDeletePeople assume we'd have a lot of trees here in Hawaii. Some areas do. But Oahu is so overcrowded with houses and buildings that there's not enough room for big trees. They're also difficult to maintain, I'm afraid... which is a shame.
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