Category Archives: trees

Focus on Smoke Bushes

My recent request to friends for photos and statements about favorite trees brought this wonderfully welcome response from Barbara Hubschman Gold. Her comments are in italics below. I drew a smoke bush at a young age and since wasn’t sure whether it was real or a product of childhood imagination. It was enchanting and dearlyContinue reading “Focus on Smoke Bushes”

Captivated by a Silk Tree in Arnold Arboretum

Entering the Arnold Arboretum in early July, I was prepared to focus on all the greenness after months of successive blooming phases: i.e., Forsythia to Lilac to Dogwood. Then surprising sprays of ivory and rosy lavenders drew me toward a distant tree I didn’t recognize. Through one small metal label on the trunk, a plantContinue reading “Captivated by a Silk Tree in Arnold Arboretum”

Yellow Blooms in Early April

After our aunt Ruth Stein died in 2011, our cousin Ann Monahan reliably sent us lively messages of remembrance on Ruth’s birthday, April 9. She often introduced her cheers for Ruth with the yellow blooms of early April.
Ann’s death on April 7 this year cut short such special poetic reminders to us and countless others in her life. The striking loss led me to gather images of yellow blossoms, in honor of Ann’s great array of ways to supportively connect people.

November Leaves, Above and Below

Bright Thanksgiving morning after rain, damp leaves underfoot reflected sunlit fluttering leaves against azure sky. The familiar, ever-changing wooded path near me called out to be captured close up below and broadly high above.   That brief chance to take in fleeting moments of autumn leaves in progress led up to the photos in this post.

Appreciate Wreaths

Holiday wreaths fit happily within the realm of ‘Pleasures of Plants,’ so one late December day I photographed several on my street and a bit beyond.The longer I looked, the more I appreciated their common and distinctive features. All are circular, continuous, connected, intertwined. Some are mostly evergreens, while others keep bare branches.

Upbeat Plantings Grow along Upland Road

On neighborhood walks this spring and summer I began to notice tended gardens in the narrow strips of earth between sidewalk and street. For instance, I felt the sense of shelter from traffic as I climbed the slope of Upland Road lined with clusters of flowers or grasses around saplings or established trees.

Wonder at the Range of Hydrangeas

Last week a surprise gift bouquet with botanical notes about hydrangeas got me to start noticing their variety in my neighborhood. I marveled at the many different forms of delicate clustered blossoms among their handsome hardy leaves. Wikipedia affirmed that worldwide there are more than seventy species of hydrangea, including shrubs, vines and truly tall trees.

Irises Recall Presence of Birch from Past

Until two years ago this tall graceful birch was a welcome landmark of a nearby park, reliable in my routines. When I became aware the birch was gone, I missed it and wondered why it was cut down, but I never sought out answers to that recurring question.