Tree News

For the Festival of the Trees in July, we are asked to help celebrate their fifth anniversary by sharing a fresh piece of news from the world of trees. Thinking about it for a few days, I was ready to just leave be it for this month, as I couldn't think of any real news. But looking through photos this morning, I saw a hat I had made a short time ago, and I thought, well this is some type of tree news. And suddenly, I had more bits of news to blog about! There is always something new happening that concerns trees in my life.

This is new, I love trees so much, I thought it would be fun to wear one on my head, planted in a little meadow-hat! Crochet by me, people smile and are very friendly when I wear this. :)

The big news this year in my garden is the blooming of my hawthorn tree. She is more than 10 years old, and has only had one flower cluster in her whole life. Until this spring, when she surprised me by bursting into bloom. Below is what she looks like this month, her berries are beginning to form.

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Another bit of news is a newly planted contorted willow. I adore willows of all kinds, and this is a beauty! All twisty and gnarly with bright green leaves. I had her rooting in a pot, and was quite content to leave her there for a little while longer. But I was gone from home for two weeks, and it was quite wilted when I returned home. I put her straight into the ground then! And she's been happy there ever since. Even when a huge car part squashed her in a fierce wind, she just picked herself back up, and continued growing happily.

Another new treeling, this little maple decided to grow in one of my flower pots. It's a beautiful little thing. Very pretty leaves, they're all roundy and tinged red at the edges. It will go into the ground fairly soon, I think.

And just today, I painted some trees into a little corner of one of the pages of the book I'm illustrating. Just a quick job, as they are not the main focus of the piece. But it seemed rather empty down there, so trees were the perfect things to add!
Visit Via Negativa during the month of July and see what news other tree lovers have to share!

Celestial ladybugs, spiders and daisies

.It's that time of the year, my Celestial Roses are blooming.

It's warm enough to sit outside and crochet in the garden, Tinkerbelle lounging on the grass with me, the roses sending lovely drifts of scent my way.

Walking around the garden, I see the insects are enjoying the weather too. A little ladybug looking for a picnic on my daisies.

A beautiful long-legged chartreuse green spider, maybe hoping for a bee lunch?

The daisies look towards the sky, watching the swallows flitting around.

They try to see over the wall beyond, what's on the other side?

The neighbour's roof! It's being used as a meeting point for the local starlings. They sit and gossip and decide which garden they will feast in next. Come to mine! I know they love to eat slugs. ;)


Violas smile at me from their spot by the back door.

Sweet peas crawl along the footpath, maybe they want to join me and the cat by the roses?

There, my hat's done! Bye bye from me and Tinkerbelle!

Cousin Itt, our Salix Caprea

I was given this little willow as a Mother's Day present several years ago.

Even before we really knew its name, there were hints as to what was coming.

One year, its branches grew so long, they hit the ground and grew sideways along the grass. We started calling the little willow "Cousin Itt" Our cat Pippin loves to hide in there, you can see his head peeking out from under Itt's hair.

Itt grew fuller, but still with the long hair! By the end of each summer, it was trailing on the ground again.

Here is "Cousin Itt" a few days ago, nestled against a Celestial Rose. A few branches are almost long enough to touch ground again..