4.8.13

All the projects which should be getting my attention are on hold. My attention, instead, is captured – captivated – by the miracle of watching the birth of baby leaves. This is a most simple preoccupation, but no matter where I go outside, my attention turns to the baby leaves. Some unfold like a pair of hands, others unfurl. My favorite baby leaves are on the hickory trees. They remind me of the birth of a human child, tightly curled into a little ball, but slowly stretching and lengthening to absorb the warm spring sunshine. It happens, if you are patient enough to watch, right before your eyes.  

Maybe it’s silly, this fascination with baby leaves, but it’s one of the reasons I love the great outdoors. Plus it’s a pretty good reason to blow off work and go for a walk in the woods. What’s your reason? ~K 



 DID YOU KNOW? 

 

The mighty Eastern hemlock, capable of growing 175 feet tall and of living 800 years, has been brought down to near extinction by the wooly hemlock adelgid, an insect no bigger than a period at the end of this sentence. These adelgids are thought to have been introduced to the US during the 1920s, probably by hitching a ride on nursery plants imported from Asia. 

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