I know there are many who read here occasionally that must be wondering what became of 10 quaking aspen seeds I planted here on this blog four weeks ago. (Okay, sometimes I succumb to hyperbole but, that aside, it leaves me wondering where those little trees went?)If you were to scroll down to the middle of last month, you would see where I first conceived of ordering a small grove of aspens (in seed form) as a birthday present to myself.
Scrolling back to July 20th, I described how the seeds had arrived in the mail and I had planted them.
It is with much sadness I must report, scrolling back to read of my immaculate conception and the five subsequent weeks since, there are no trees. Sadly then, this has become my blog on the "Dead Seed Scrolls." (Ugh, sorry!)
But this does say something about me and faith acting in unison as a force to affect a dent in the space time continuum, whether it be planting microscopic "imaginary seeds" or getting Bush and company out of DC.
With a pretty green thumb, I approach plant related things with a fair amount of confidence that, under my tutelage, stuff will live and grow (if not always thrive). However, as I alluded in my aspen planting blog, faith went out the window when I first glimpsed the aspen seeds a month ago. And when faith deserts me, so do the odds I'll succeed in affecting the change upon the cosmos I so desperately desire. Hence, while in no way connected, loss of faith helps me explain things like why I have no aspen grove and George Bush is still my worse nightmare.
July 20th - Wednesday my quaking aspen birthday seeds arrived in the mail. I honestly don't know whether to be astonished or feel suckered. That's because when I opened the envelope, and the second and third successively smaller and smaller envelopes inside, I finally arrived at the most amazing thing - what is supposed to be 100 aspen seeds. I say supposedly because these things are microscopic in size!
So yesterday with the help of Mrs. Dada I diligently followed the directions provided, hoping someone, somewhere in Eugene, Oregon who had sent these seeds wasn't laughing their ass off at my gullibility.
Now I'm left with just somewhere between 90 to a 137,237 aspen "seeds" (too microbial to count) and wondering how to proceed next. After all, autumn and then aspen shut down season is just around the corner.
And, of course, my missing faith has me wondering if somewhere in Eugene, someone is still laughing their ass off at my missing aspen seedlings, just as a number of folks in DC are laughing their asses off at our missing "democracy" delusions.
Dead Seed Scrolls indeed!
4 comments:
Maybe in this analogy, the young tender seedlings were just too fragile to survive. The timing, the ph or the conditions were just not right for these seeds to flourish- just as the people of this country were too complacent and easily led to trust that things that were being said were true.
So maybe you just need to go to a nursery & spring for some Aspen baby trees that already have roots, are established & growing. It could be too that your region aspens have different requirements or are a different breed of aspen? In any case don't give up on the forest. It was a lovely idea & still is, just needs some tweaking.
I don't know what this says about bushmocracy, but you can't fight nature, the space-time continuum & imaginary seeds at one time. I applaud your efforts, but perhaps aspens just aren't right for your area. And from what I've heard about growing them in a residential yard, you might be better off. They have tremendous sucker root problems. For yrs, my parents had 3 poplar trees, which are closely related to aspens, but finally had to grind them out due to their invasive roots.
I just looked up aspen alternatives you might be interested in seeing at your local nursery: Hedge Maple (acer campestre) for yellow/gold leaves; Amur Maple (acer grinnala) for more red leaves.
Leaf photos at
http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ldplants/acca3.htm
http://oregonstate.edu/dept.ldplants/acgi6.htm
If it's any consolation, I doubt the limited imagination of the dead seeds were aware of your momentary loss of faith, but I also know the people in Eugene possess such an evolved sense of humor that their asses have not been laughed off (yet). ~~ D.K.
GD - DK: Thanks for the encouragement, and alternative suggestions. No doubt, the mind which is ceaseless in seeking solutions, esp. as we sleep, will continue working on this.
And for a few brief moments this afternoon, I was wonderfully distracted by the beautiful alternatives offered DK, and thoughts of visiting a local nursery, GD, (which are fewer and fewer, thanks to Wal-Marts and Lowe's, etc.) to look at and talk about trees.
The maples are gorgeous and I suppose I could forgo the mind altering quaking if it saves the backyard from being overrun with a vast network of unwanted roots.
So I really appreciate the suggestions. As for those seeds, I'll continue to try - the challenge has been cast (they're currently in the refridgerator, precisely as suggested by those jokers in Eugene--J/K, I'm NOT really paranoid about 'em and, yes, Eugene is a wonderful pocket of left wings that continue to thrive despite everything).
I am so sorry...this reminds me of when I bought sea monkeys for my son...similiar story...
and then the dog drank from the bowl...and my son kept waiting to see if there were sea monkeys in the dog
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