Day 23 - results

Today I zoomed back into the pages of my bumblebee allegory version of real life on our property.  Although this looks like a bush it's actually an Eastern Fringe Tree.   I got her for a paltry sum a few years back just past the point when she'd flowered and shed the dried blooms.  I call her Fair Lass because she's very fair indeed.  She came here in the middle of a drought so I waited for sustained rain before planting.  The following year her trunk was dead but several suckers emerged from the base.  Last year they all budded and leafed.  When I checked last weekend their buds were clearly wick despite the bitter cold.  Sometimes the prolonged cold stretch still to come claims the vigor of a few shoots. I cut them back and prune to shape the general architecture that's emerging.

This tree isn't native to our region but it's quite able to thrive in our hardiness zone.  For years I've eyed their showy many-trunked beauty in other peoples' yards or gardens. Have observed they often self-coppice as a way of adjusting their inner strength to new england's  specific cold season demands for survival.  If you follow the above link and scroll through the photos at the top of the page you'll see what the Fair Lass is likely to become.

Anything I plant takes into account what it might look like when my son's my current age, Providence willing.  It also takes into account how little interest he's shown in actively gardening throughout his life.   I want things that thrive quite well on their own and are mostly healing in the medicinal sense but I've also taken care to plant a few trees/bushes that can thrive on their own steam and also flower in show-stopping frequently sweet-scented blooms that prompt him to say "mom" out loud.  Just a few times a year should he choose to keep living here.

Although the Poplar that looks nothing like a poplar in its allegorical version and the Fair Lass are not in this close proximity they will one day be the Tree Keepers of this space I call the Evolving Sanctuary.  For today's prompt I stuck as close to the Fringe Tree's appearance last year as I could.  Wound up using very unusual paper choices but this challenge has loosened me up a lot in that way. 

In the process of rummaging for Florentine papers to fulfill yesterday's prompt I found an overlooked fragment of the frog paper I wanted to use for the magical frog pond spread above.   Four bear witness to the goat's amazing feat while the fifth basks in  holographic star-light...

(eta:  I never knew until 4 or 5 years ago that hummingbirds sometimes fly at night ...)

Comments

[Mo Crow]

love the Chinese fringe flower aka Chionanthus retusus, have never seen your species in real life but the flowers are very similar

[Acey]

Love the deep plum berries your species makes!! Just now having looked it up - the flowers seem identical although maybe yours are held a bit more upright.

[Liz A]

Okay, I couldn't resist ...

Hey diddle dee, the frog in the tree
The goat jumped over the moon
The little toad laughed to see such a sight
As the bullfrog sang out of tune

Seriously, this collage continues to delight with each new iteration

[Acey]

Liz - so glad you didn't! Now there's a song! It can ... be sung as the image is studied and individually interpreted. omg. there's a song!!!

[grace Maestas]

i think i have never seen, in my life, a more beautiful, BEAUTY FULL, DELIGHT FULL
image as the Goat and the Frogs Moon.....the tenderness of it is Elegant
and now, oh, now a song, i can hear it and i will take it Out, with me tonight
and sing to the tree frogs here, the Goats
Such Beauty in this life. My heart is full with this.