In October, when Albuquerque skies are littered with hundreds of hot air balloons dangling like so many sheep's turds tangled in the hind-end wool of an unshorn ewe's bottom (only far more colorful), the thin mountain air just a couple hours northward mediates the annual New Mexican conference between low hanging azure skies and golden yellows of the Taos autumn aspens reaching up to embrace them. They never quite touch, making their flirtations all the more titillating.And it was the thought of this (well, not the Albuquerque--sheep part so much), of the beautiful Taos aspens quaking in cool breezes of the autumn that can send one into an altered state of consciousness just watching them, that I got the idea to plant an aspen tree in our back yard.
So shopping online brought me two options: 1.) a 3' tree for $19, or 2.) a pack of 100 quaking aspen seeds for $3. I opted for the latter and placed my order with a place in Eugene, OR.
Now I wait excitedly for my birthday present to arrive in the mail--a forest!
Photo attribute: Hanselmann Photography
4 comments:
oh I love quakies, they're always my fave part of any high country drive. With a 100 of them, I'm sure you'll end up with many good ones. What a great present!
And now I MUST tell what your memories triggered: when I was a young whippersnapette, I always called quakies "shakies". When I was still whippersnapish, circa 1959, there was a semi-popular song called The Hippy Hippy Shakes, which I assumed was all about those aspen trees! Oh I sang it all the time, drove everyone crazy, even doing an imitation of an quaking aspen as I sang, which probably explains my parents laughter & requests for me to sing it for their friends. By the time the Beatles and then The Screaming Blue Jeans came out with their covers in the 60's, my teenage hormones had kicked in & I realized aspens were NOT what they were singing about!
May your quakies thrive forever, dada. ~~ D.K.
Awww what a cool gift. May they thrive & flourish!
Allows for future word play too...
Well quake my Aspen.....
Or
kiss my Aspen....
deke: Imagine having been out of circulation in the mid-Sixties...in the army, stationed for 3 years in the middle of the vast Chihuahuan desert. Suddenly, in mid-'67, I was cast out into society. Landing in the middle of Sausalito on a Sunday, traffic at a crawl to standstill and all these long hairs X-ing the street in front of us. I was ready to return to White Sands. I had a bad case of the hippy, hippy shakes. (Ugh, so sorry if you've read this far....your anecdote was much, much better.) And knowing this very red, redheaded girl (my 4 yrs. younger than I niece's girlfriend me and my nephew called "red") it was easy to imagine you at that age singing and dancing The Hippie Hippie Shakes.
g.d. - great idea. Ah,
George Bush is more of a dictator than Fidel Castro ever aspen!
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