Spring Greetings from Kitsap Forests

Spring Salutations and Fall Felicitations to all!

Trees in the Pacific Northwest are blooming, and in the cold forests of Kitsap County our deciduous trees are slowly awakening.

Wild willow hybrids (Salix) are early with fuzzy pussywillow flowers. Today you can smell hints of the balsam perfume of the Black cottonwood (Populus balsamifera spp. trichocarpa) drifting through on the breeze. Evergreen huckleberries (Vaccinium ovatum), an important year-round food source for birds and beasts of all kinds, have already begun to blossom.


Red alder (Alnus rubra) trees are among the first to wiggle open here in the spring warmth. The “red” of their appellation is best revealed in spring when the twigs, buds, and catkin flowers all blush with the rise of sap and the stir of March storms. Alders are a hearty pioneering species which help establish good growing conditions for other plant species in the forest.

We have a healthy stand of young alders (10+ years) which grew over the part of the property which was originally clear-cut. Today they are home to birds, frogs, mice, snakes, bunnies, bees, and plenty of other critters (and there’s an awesome blackberry thicket producing in the middle).

Spring days are patchworks of rain, cloud, wind, thunder, and sudden, bright sunbreaks. It’s the right time of year for rainbow watching, so if you see sun, rain, and black clouds in the early morning or late afternoon, I highly recommend that you step away from your desk, go outside, and search the sky for fleeting arcs of color.

Want more spring trees and flowers? Take a look at spring blossoms in eastern Pennsylvania from March 2006 and March 2007.

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REMINDER: The Festival of the Trees issue 46 is hosted at Vanessa’s Trees and Shrubs Blog on About.com.

Vanessa invites submissions of all kinds, and is especially interested in humorous trees in honor of April Fool's Day.

• Deadline for submissions is March 29th.
• Participation is easy: blog about trees, send us the link, spread the word!
• Email submissions to: treesandshrubs.guide [at] about [dot] com — or use the contact form at The Festival of the Trees coordinating blog.

Autumn Sunset Greetings

Red Alder Cones

Red Alder cones like these are sprinkled all around my garden from last autumn. It’s no wonder these trees are growing like weeds among the garden herbs! In the upper-right you see one of the flowered male catkins draped and spent upon the branch.

We have many lovely Red Alders growing around the house, and a healthy young stand maturing on the western portion of the property. The young stand is home to our “blackberry circle” where many young ferns, foxgloves, and up-and-coming evergreens are patiently emerging in the small light gaps.

Back in the Land of Evergreens (and Alders)

Greetings from the Emerald City! I am settling in to the Pacific Northwest after enjoying a most excellent roadtrip from Philadelphia to Seattle. I will resume blogging in June with a post frequency of 1 – 2 times per week on each blog: AppleJade, Arboreality, and Brainripples.

At Arboreality we will be exploring the woods of Western Washington and other localities within reasonable driving distance.

At AppleJade we will be discussing healthy, happy lifestyle through attitude, gardening, cooking, and simple, green living.

At Brainripples we will be sharing methods of creative exploration, successful approaches to working independently, and unique perspectives from featured artists.

You will also find me blogging at the Pennwriters Area 6 HQ, a new blog created as a resource for writers living in and around southeastern Pennsylvania. I will be blogging with other Pennwriters about local news, events, information, and of course – writers!

If you are a writer in the Puget Sound Area (Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Kitsap Peninsula, Bellingham) and would like to join my newly forming Pennwriters Seattle Critique Groups, please contact me for more information.

Finally, I look forward to sharing thoughts and of course images of local forests from the Cascades and the Olympics. I will also be enjoying the opportunity to garden in two different locations, which means plenty of veggies, herbs, and flowers to share with you.

PS - Today's image is of the trunks of Red Alder trees nestled in the Kitsap forests.

Transcience

In light of the earthquake affecting people in the India-Pakistan-Kashmir regions, I would like to share the following:

Transcience by Sarojini Naidu http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/naidu01.html#2

Note: Transcience is the second poem on the page.

Second note: I had to look up ashoka. Here's a good picture that came from a quick google:

http://www.geocities.com/indiatrees/ashoka.jpg