Tuesday, March 17, 2015

A Poem Lovely as a Tree

Here's a concept I come back to time and again. Trees. (With all due respect to Joyce Kilmer...)
My yard is all trees, which is abnormal for the desert Southwest. We're entirely enveloped by shade. The previous owners planted or nurtured a pine tree, five mulberry, two olive, eleven citrus, two palo verde and a fig. (There's also some fruit tree that I have yet to figure out. It could be an apple or pear or? It doesn't get a lot of sun and isn't very happy. That much I know).
Everywhere I look there's a tree.
I've been working in the yard vigorously to make sure I have a lot of fruit again next year. The citrus are all blooming and the scent in the yard is powerful. Overwhelming, almost. But, to me, there's nothing quite like a grapefruit fresh off the tree and while I still have plenty, the trees and the bees are already working hard on next year's crop.
Next Year's Pinkies
I Googled trees. I found a lot of politics about chopping down trees and the like. Yes, it seems kind of moronic to fell a tree, make paper out of it then put a label on the paper that reads: "Save a Tree, Please Recycle." I get the point.
Then, I came across Van Gogh's "Maulbeerbaum," a fantastic painting of a mulberry in autumn.


I just love those colors, don't you? The leaves of my mulberry trees turn a kind of blah dark gold and brown.
I also found among Van Gogh's works a different painting of a tree. I've never seen it and it's not surprising. The painting was stolen from a private collection and no one knows where it is. 
Quite the shame. 
Wind Beaten Tree
I have to include one more tree for inspiration. I also found this on Google, but without attribution. I think it's cool; I wish I knew who created this:


Isn't that wild?
Send me your Tree(s) to 1xeritas@gmail.com; show me your twinchies! Include links to your blog as well. Come back next week to see what transpired! 

7 comments:

  1. I'll see what I can do to join you as I've been missing a twinchie challenge! Nice images you've shared & so are the memories the citrus trees evoked, we had 4 orange trees in our back yard when we lived in Libya back in the 70s, one was a navel & 1 a blood orange... Ah happy days :-)

    Sally

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It would be fabulous if you could join in the fun here, Sally! Nothing too complicated or too stressful, I hope! Ahhhh, citrus, gotta love 'em. We have over 20 oranges that harvested themselves just today...I know what we're having for breakfast!

      Delete
  2. Like the idea of a twinchie page..... And love your art today :-)

    Sally

    ReplyDelete
  3. If you saw my post this week for my inchie, then you saw my tree bracelet. I do seem to like trees in my work, lol I did a family tree necklace for a friend and the next bracelet I will be working on will have a few trees in it. I cant wait to start it. Love the trees you posted, love Van Gogh's trees!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll be checking out your trees, Freebird! It's hard to not be inspired by trees--someone planted them years ago so we can have shade, food, wood, paper now. Oh, yeah, and that little something we breathe: OXYGEN!

      Delete
  4. I like your twinchie tree challenge! I'm going to try it. :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Excellent, Heather! I look forward to seeing what you do with this idea! c

      Delete