Category: Woodies
Trees and shrubs I grow.
Sunday music: Maple’s Lament
Loving both plants and traditional music, this Laurie Lewis song on this morning’s Nonesuch radio show struck a chord. Listen here.
Apparently she wrote this when business was slow at her fiddle-making shop and the violins hanging on the wall spoke to her.
The Maple’s Lament
(Laurie Lewis/Spruce and Maple Music)
When I was alive the birds would nest upon my boughs
And all through long winter nights the storms would ’round me howl
And when the day would come, I’d raise my branches to the sun
I was the child of earth and sky, and all the world was one
But now that I am dead the birds no longer sing in me
And I feel no more the wind and rain as when I was a tree
But bound so tight in wire strings, I have no room to grow
And I am but the slave who sings, when master draws the bow
But sometimes from my memory I can sing the birds in flight
And I can sing of sweet dark earth and endless starry nights
But oh, my favorite song of all, I truly do believe
Is the song the sunlight sang for me while dancing on my leaves
GGW Picture This Photo Contest: Flowering Trees
Update [7/27/2009]: Wow. Got a runner-up. “Beautifully lit and tightly cropped, Craig’s shot has it all. The strong curves and intense colors make this image a keeper. Excellent technique!” Thanks for the kind words, Rob.
My entry into Gardening Gone Wild’s July photo contest: Salix sachalinensis ‘Sekka’ (Salix udensis ‘Sekka’)
The contest made me realize that I’m pretty weak on the flowering trees and shrubs in my garden. Or at least the spectacular ones.
Plants I should have put together
When I saw these shots from scattered spots around the garden on the thumbnails page, I wished that I’d put them all together in one place in the garden, too. The whites and purples work well together.
Verbascum. (Don’t know the species, but it’s seeding around nicely.)
A shrub whose name escapes me.
The verbascum I opened with, along with some Verbena hastata coming on. If the Verbena speeds up and/or the verbascum slows down, could be a nice pairing.
Rosa ‘Cuisse de Nymphe’
Or ‘Cuisse de Nymphe Emue’. Ask Delphine for a translation, and you’ll understand why the rather staid Brits changed this rose’s name to ‘Maiden’s Blush’. Unfortunately, these bloomed too late to enter in the Gardening Gone Wild rose photo contest. Oh well. Last year’s blooms were larger, not so rain-soaked.