Fresh Growth on Douglas Firs

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.

Arboreality Returns in June

I am returning to Seattle this May, and Arboreality will be on vacation until June 1, 2008 while I pack and travel.

Arboreality extends a gracious thank you to Mike of 10,000 Birds for volunteering to host the Festival of the Trees next month on such short notice. Be sure to send in your submissions this April featuring trees, forests, and wood.

Once I am settled in Seattle I’ll be able to share images from my return trip across the US. We’ll return to the evergreen forests of my home-state with a fresh pair of eyes. Until then, enjoy the blooming spring or the glorious autumn (depending upon your location), and feel free to reminisce through the Pennsylvania hardwoods when we explored the Poconos, and my dear home right here at the farm in Chester County, Pennsylvania.

See you in June!

Emergence Among the Trees

The forests are still sleeping in Eastern Pennsylvania, but these photos from Ridley Creek State Park last month show the quiet emergence of ferns and other flora. I couldn't resist sharing photos of Snowdrops and Winter Aconite from my own garden taken earlier in March. Coming up at Arboreality: the first signs of swelling tree buds.

Fungi Along the Forest Trails

Festival of the Trees 21 Orchards and Fruits Edition Now Online at Orchards Forever

This month’s Festival of the Trees 21 is a special fruit and orchard edition hosted by Peg at Orchards Forever. You’ll be sure to enjoy this delicious selection of unique and tasty blog posts. Peg’s thoughtful edition of the Festival of the Trees is well worth the read. Fortunately for us, today’s Festival begins on a Sunday. Enjoy a lazy stroll through the orchards!

To volunteer to host a future festival, and to submit blog posts to future festivals, visit the Festival of the Trees coordinating blog.

Evergreen Goodness: American Holly Among the Pennsylvania Hardwoods

Goose Snag

Today’s image is from a recent hike at Ridley Creek State Park. This “goose snag” caught our eye from way up the trail, and was too cool not to share. Perhaps we should name her “Snaggle Goose.”

There is more to share from the park: coming up next I’ll share pictures of winter hardwoods, fungi, and lovely evergreen holly.

Fabulous Friday Philadelphia Snowfall

This morning we awoke to a beautiful snowfall which has given us about four inches in the last four hours (it’s 8am EST now). We took a quick walk to enjoy the boot-crunching-goodness of first-thing-in-the-morning snow. With little wind, the trees are well-coated; snow always accentuates the lovely shapes of trees. Today's top image is of the butternut tree (Juglans cinerea) over the driveway, an excellent tree and true friend, naturally photogenic in snow.

Just about everything looks good in snow, including our wood fence (built by The Fence Authority of Chester County, Pennsylvania). We’re thankful for our cedar fence (this is its first winter) which allows our husky Blackfoot to enjoy the yard as a good dog should. As you can see, the garden is also segmented, to keep our over-zealous husky out of the vegetables.

Now that it’s lighter outside I plan to go visit the local woods with my camera. More images to follow!

(Blackfoot's Washington buddy The Quilting Doberman posted some righteous pictures of the beautiful snow in the Cascades this January).

Frozen Forests at Ridley Creek State Park

I took some much needed time out this week to enjoy a small hike at Ridley Creek State Park. Ridley Creek State Park includes more than 2,606 acres of woodlands located in Delaware County near the West Chester Pike (Route 3).

Among the park’s many features is the Park Office and Gardens. From the DCNR park website:

"The park office is in the “Hunting Hill” mansion, built by the Jeffords family in 1914. The mansion was built around a 1789 Pennsylvania stone farmhouse that forms the core of the building and serves as the reception center."

Recently the Philadelphia area has seen bits of snow, ice, rain, and freezing rain, which meant that on this particular hike, most of my attention was spent trying to maintain my balance on icy trails. We will return soon on less icy days when I can carry my camera and bring you photos from the forest. In the spring I will also return to share images of the gardens. In the absence of pictures, I can tell you that the creek was roaring and full, and the trees were snuggly in their icy snow-blanket.

If you’re in the Philadelphia area and would like to learn more about local trees and forests, be sure to visit Steven Chmielnicki at Artisan Trees. Steven is an ISA Certified Arborist of Artisan Tree & Treehouse, LLC. Recently Steven began organizing informal “tree walks” at parks in our area. He invites groups of people to join him in learning to identify local species. These tree walks are free and open to the public. I hope to join Steven in the future and share a little about his tree walks here at Arboreality.

To learn more or to join in future tree walks visit the Artisan Trees website.

The Festival of the Trees 20 online at Ginkgo Dreams

The Festival of the Trees 20 is online at Ginkgo Dreams courtesy of this month’s host Kelly Schmitt Youngberg. Kelly has prepared a truly unique collection, and her festival has a graceful, meditative quality – much like the ginkgo tree. This collection is not to be missed – so off you go, into the woods!

To volunteer to host a future festival, and to submit blog posts to future festivals, visit the Festival of the Trees coordinating blog.

Winter Woodshed

This winter we built a woodshed under the pine trees at our cottage in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Our design includes two segments of 8 feet square each: one for wood, and the other for the splitter.

When practical, we like to find opportunities to cut trees and split our own firewood from the rounds. This year we purchased our wood from the local Bradley Tree Experts as usual, and now we have someplace dry to keep it (rather than tarping the wood on the driveway).

The great thing about using wood heat for your home is that it warms you several times over. You warm yourself up stoking the fire. You warm yourself up every time you haul in a load of wood. You warm yourself up sawing, rolling, loading, unloading, splitting, hauling, and stacking wood. Managing the fire is part of how I keep active in the winter with the garden sleeping under snow.

Inside the fire is cozy, and with the cost of oil these days it’s actually a more affordable way to heat the home.

Outside, my guess is that the squirrels have all put down payments on the prime real estate, and are having an excellent weekend moving in to the coziest corners of the shed. I’ve already discovered walnuts in the stack!

Dances with Trees (and Ants Too!)

Check out this preview of Biome on YouTube, Capacitor's newest dance video, shot in Costa Rica's Monteverdi rainforest.

Capacitor is a San Francisco-based dance troupe. Jodi Lomask and dancers accompanied Nalini Nadkarni to her field study sites in Costa Rica. Nalini Nadkarni is the author of Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections to Trees (June 2008).

Also, Nadkarni’s husband Jack Longino is an entomologist who has researched ants of the rainforest. Jack and colleagues recently conducted arthropod surveys in Chiapas Mexico and Guatemala. Check out his video Nucú for You Too!

And if that doesn't satisfy your video interests, check out the recent post at Arboreality, Nalini Nadkarni on Trees and Spirituality.

New Content is Sprouting at Arboreality

Tree blogging is a genuine love of mine, and I especially enjoy the opportunity to exercise my amateur photography upon such an excellent and ever-evolving subject.

This Christmas my folks contributed once again to Arboreality with the gift of a new lens for my Nikon D80: the AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED lens. Now we shall boldly go where Arboreality has never been able to go before: high, high into the treetops! [For example, the nest in our first image - remember you can click on pictures to enlarge them.]

Suddenly it has all become to clear to me (no pun intended) as to how so many other bloggers can take pictures of birds: they have zoom lenses! No longer must I sneak within a few meters to obtain blurred images of indignant ornithoids: now I can stealthily snap their photograph without their knowledge! Ditto for deer, foxes, and other mobile lifeforms.

In addition to the sharper images at Arboreality, I will also be brining in content from other writers. Arboreality will invite its first guest bloggers this year, and will also be sharing articles from businesses who work in trees, plants, flowers, and gardening supplies. Our first book review of the Curious Gardener’s Almanac in November 2007 is the first of many to come; in fact, there are two books sitting on my desk, staring me down expectantly every morning.

Arboreality is one of three blogs I write in addition to Brainripples and AppleJade. Between these three blogs plus my (paying) work as an independent writer / editor, I find that I have an ever-waning amount of free-blogging time to wander the woods and wax philosophical. My hope is that by bringing new writers and businesses to the table at Arboreality, I will continue to bring you fresh ideas about trees and forests throughout the year - no matter how busy my work schedule becomes.

If you would like to contribute at Arboreality, please contact me via email at jadeblackwater [at] brainripples [dot] com with a brief query for consideration.

Also, for all my regular readers: please be sure to let me know if you ever have trouble loading Arboreality or its images. Thank you!

Festival of the Trees 19 is Online at Hoarded Ordinaries

The Festival of the Trees 19 (our first FotT for 2008) is now online at Hoarded Ordinaries, courtesy of Lorianne. She shares a dense, rich forest of links, thoughts, and reflections. Starting us off with a look at trees of the past, Lorianne also presents “Picture perfect trees,” “Festive trees,” “Poetic trees,” and even “Mythic trees”!

If you’re still in a New Year’s haze, take a moment to see the trees for the forest, and explore the plethora of tree and forest blogging that Lorianne has collected like so many acorns to share with us at this month's festival.

To submit for next month’s festival, or to volunteer to host the Festival of the Trees at your blog, be sure to visit the Festival of the Trees coordinating blog.

Have a great, green 2008!

UN Climate Change Conference in Bali

While you’re waiting on my Christmas tree post, I encourage you take a few moments to visit ClimateProtect.org.

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is underway in Bali, and tomorrow, Friday December 14, 2007, Al Gore will be addressing the conference.

As a part of his presentation, Al Gore will be sharing the plethora of signatures collected at ClimateProtect.org which support Al Gore’s visionary treaty addressing the current issues of climate change, wherein

“[he] will urge the delegates in Bali to adopt a bold mandate for a treaty that establishes a universal global cap on emissions and uses the market in emissions trading to efficiently allocate resources to the most effective opportunities for speedy reductions.”

I encourage you to hop over to ClimateProtect.org and add your name to the petition. The health of the Earth and her environments is also our health as humans. Regardless of our personal philosophies, we all share a common ground on the Earth. There is no one right answer, but we can all be a part of the discussion.

Thanks Joanna for passing the word!

Snowy Chester County

The farm where we rent our cottage is nestled in Chester County, just outside of Philadelphia. For the last few days we’ve had a beautiful little snow dusting and crispy, cold temperatures. Our snowfall accumulated roughly two inches, and officially brought winter to our neck of Pennsylvania.

Yesterday’s sunrise illuminated the many oak trees which have not yet released their leaves. This phenomenon, called “leaf marcescence,” is common among oaks (Quercus), beeches (Fagus), and a few other deciduous trees. (Remember you can click on pictures to enlarge). I hope to take a drive up toward Phoenixville some time this winter so I can bring you pictures at Arboreality – there are beautiful swaths of forests (and lovely planted sycamores in town), and the blush of the young beech trees is always a warming sight in the cold of winter.

Of course, I can’t resist an excuse to share another picture of the stone silo. As an artist, I am perpetually inspired by the intermixing of farm, forest, and fauna here at my Pennsylvania home. This stone silo is one of a handful of remnants of the original farming days which once defined Chester County and the greater Brandywine Valley region. The third image is one of my favorite romantic staples in these parts: the elegant, imposing Black walnut (Juglans nigra).

Today, much of this land is being converted to suburban housing. Fortunately, the local culture allows room for a genuine interest in conservation, as demonstrated by the Open Space Preservation Department of Chester County. Last winter I had the pleasure of interviewing the Director, Mr. Bill Gladden. Check out the interview here at Arboreality, and stop by the Open Space Preservation Department website to learn more about local efforts to retain forest and farmland in the area.

Coming up at Arboreality: Christmas trees, winter planting, and green holidays.

Looking to bring a few more trees to your blog? The Festival of the Trees is a monthly blog carnival featuring trees and forests from around the blogosphere. Stop by the Festival of the Trees coordinating blog to learn how you can contribute your tree posts, or volunteer to host the festival right at your own blogging home! (An April volunteer is needed! April means Arbor Day for many in the US... what better time to host the Festival of the Trees?)

The Festival of the Trees 18 is Sprouting at Riverside Rambles

Larry Ayers of Riverside Rambles has spared no small effort in composing this month’s Festival of the Trees 18 - November Arborea. Watch it grow! There’s plenty to play with already online, and Larry is composing (composting?) the rest as we speak.

The Festival of the Trees is a monthly blog carnival featuring posts about trees and forests from blogs across the Internet. Check out the Festival of the Trees coordinating blog to learn how to share your own submissions, or volunteer to host a future festival at your blog!

Nalini Nadkarni on Trees and Spirituality

I recently mentioned that forest biologist Nalini Nadkarni is publishing a new book, Between Earth and Sky: Our Intimate Connections with Trees.

Between Earth and Sky is an excellent book discussing the enormous variety of connections between trees and people. How do I know it's such a great book? Because I have had the honor to work as her research assistant in preparing Between Earth and Sky, as well as the opportunity to study with her while I was a student at The Evergreen State College.

Imagine my excitement this morning when I found this YouTube special composed by Frank Andersen. "Temple Talk" documents Nalini's presentation on trees and spirituality at the Olympia Zen Center in Olympia, Washington.

As a scientist, Nalini shows a remarkable ability to explore forest ecology from many different perspectives. Take a few minutes to enjoy her presentation for a sneak preview of her book, as Nalini Nadkarni explores just one of the many connections between trees, forests, and all us humans.

Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments!

The Last of the Autumn Color

These images were taken at the beginning of November, when our autumn color was reaching its peak. We’ve had a long, beautiful color show this season, and Thanksgiving’s cold, wind, and now rain has managed to remove all but the last of the leaves.