BLOG

LUCA AND PLUM TREE BLOSSOMS

March 2008

THIS MONTH's THEME:

Trees

It's the little things citizens do.
That's what will make the difference.
My little thing is planting trees.

Wangari Muta Maathai


Collective blossoming

Yes, this is the most positive blogging you can imagine. What is more important and more life-enforcing than trees?

I thought about this theme, as taking care of the fruit trees is what I get busy with most of the day. So, what is more natural than involving you in this too?

If only everyone knew how incredibly giving the relationship between us and the trees is! I am so grateful I got this chance to daily live with so many fruit trees.

Spring has already come, trees are blossoming, and one of the most beautiful miracles on Earth will take place, one more year.

WANGARI MAATHAI WANGARI MAATHAI


Trees hold the World

It might seem as if I choose the monthly themes randomly. I don't, all what I will present this year will be about recharging our batteries, our life-energy.

As our inner world is the base for our personality, in a similar way trees are the columns on which the Earth lies.

Trees are rock-solid, and I always feel happy and safe when being around them. Which is many hours a day!

We started with plum's blossoms, above here, and we continue with apricots' blossoms, which are amazingly beautiful too. And so many! Hope there will be as many fruits as it looks like...

APRICOT TREE BLOSSOMS APRICOT TREE BLOSSOMS

For truly appreciating how trees are important and fundamental in so many aspects of our life, you can visit the Living Tree Educational Foundation


Trees need warmth

Some days of very cold weather. This is the nightmare of all fruit trees holders. As a late frost can kill blossoms, simply. As a consequence, no fruit for a whole season, or even permanent damages to the trees, that can get weak and dry and die.

True, there is an element of randomness in nature that is scaring. You can ignore it if you live in a city, buy food in a shop, and are reasonably wealthy. But when you live in a countryside and depend on nature, then half of your life is hard work, and the other half is praying... even a God that doesn't exist... but you do pray at the end of the day, all your work won't be destroyed. And you will have to starve.

Don't get me wrong: I don't see this dependence on nature as negative, quite the opposite. It is a very healthy continuous reminding of the basic needs in a human life, and a guarantee we, lost in the chants of all industrial siren, won't forget what is right and necessary.
Still, having proper and enough food is vital.

Climate changes are evident, seasons have become some vague concepts, difficult to define, and it happens more and more trees are confused and fooled by some very warm winters. They believe spring has already come and start blossoming like mad. In fact they don't possess a calendar, they feel the temperature, and react on this. The risk is then, weather is occasionally freezing later, and unfortunately even a single night is enough to have destroying effects.

Anyway, any work for strengthening the trees is alpha and omega, and a strong tree is better at surviving challenging weather. This is what I am doing right now, and I am confident everything will be all right.


Blop

Guess what happened yesterday?
Of course I had to reinstall the whole Linux thing. Which, opposite Windoze, rarely is necessary. But the mistake was mine, and can't believe I did. I had the best intentions, finally taking a backup of the whole hard disk, as it was quite a long time I had not done. Real man take backup, as they say, so I looked very cool while doing it, but when I restarted the computer a long mess of error messages was all what I got. What had happened? It is very simple: in stead of copying my hard disk to the external backup one, I did move it to it...

Gosh, did I really do that? I told you stress is killing me, and makes me do dumb things, but, @#½%, who the heck is the assassin who made moving a default, in stead of copying, when one drops a folder from one window to another? You know, dear unknown programmer and designer, you did a real pooh there.
What if it was an atomic reactor's command: "Melt the kernel!!!" and you put a big YES as a default, you funny man?

And no, I am not in an awful mood today. Actually the opposite, it has been raining for days, and I had to stay indoor, so I finally did so many things I had delayed for months. And I have been ignoring completely my family, which took 99.03% of the stress away, so that I am pretty relaxed, for a change.

Right, what a blog today, see you on Monday with more beautiful pictures of our beloved trees.


Dirty politics and clean trees

Before continuing with our trees, just a short note on the political side.
Many of the Mediterranean countries have had elections, or related events, and good news for the left-oriented.
In España, José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has gained a second mandate and more seats in the Parliament, which is quite rare, usually popularity is going down after the first one. So, let's see what Zapatero will do with this big chance he got. Let's hope he will continue with its innovative and green inittiatives (train transportation, renewable energy) and less with the artificial pushing of the economic growth, mainly through an exasperated building rush. A demonstration anyway, that it is not so difficult for a leftist government to get reelected, it is enough to keep the promises and make a decent work.
Not what the Italian government did, I mean they did a relatively good job, but they were too slow and timid in keeping the promises, and did some big bummers too, but certainly Romano Prodi, who announced his retirement from (Italian) politics yesterday, didn't deserve the humiliating treatment he got in the media (and you know who owns them...) In the meanwhile, the campaign for the next elections, on April, is going on, with the new Democratic Party reducing more and more the gap, at least in the Senate, so what appeared as an inevitable return of the criminal band of amateurs who destroyed Italy for 5 years (and you know whom I am talking about...) isn't so easy any more.
Finally, France: it was nearly unbelievable such a sophisticated country chose such a braggart as a president. It seems they are starting realizing it. It will have some effects on occupation for sure, yes, that of spin doctors...
That was it for now.

Here it is still raining a lot, good for the trees to get a lot of water reserve for the warm seasons, but also the fertile culture for the molds I am trying to heal. I think the situation is under control, anyway. All the trees are very clean now and it is easy to just go around every day and clean a bit here and a bit there, where it is needed. I use a knife for that, carefully, and another brush, don't know the name in English. Traditionally a dedicated tool has been used, and again I am afraid my English doesn't cut, a kind of curved knife.
Even if I usually leave the trees in peace as much as possible, this cleaning is a very good prevention for many troubles, like bark rotting, or housing parasites. After that, I am smearing the surface of the trees with a mixture of clay and blended raw garlic or onions. And it seems it is working, the trees look very clean and healthy and stronger than ever.

Some cute pears blossoms:

PEARS BLOSSOMS PEAR TREE BLOSSOMS


Planting masters

How to plant a tree?
You make a big hole in the ground, put the tree in it, and cover it to the root with the earth you moved out... so easy.
Well, not really, nearly so.

I am certainly not expert in this, but I would like to tell you a couple of nice advices,

The first is: when you plant something, not only trees but also vegetables, seeds etc. a good idea is to mix some water with some clay. As always with clay you should not use plastic or metal containers, best are ceramic ones. Then you immerse the root of the plant into this mix and pour some of it in the hole too. This way the soil and the plant will be easier connected, and will integrate much better. Water will prevent roots drying. Clay will also provide some important mineral elements to the soil, which will reinforce the plant. If you haven't got clay, just use some of the soil from the hole you dig.
I learned this at the times I was traveling and working in organic farms, from a guy, Giuseppe, who was born in a countryside in Calabria (south of Italia- EU), worked all life in the fields, and who knew all kinds of agricultural tricks.

Another suggestion is from the wise traditions of the Siberian folk, my friend Petr told me.
When they plant seeds, they put them in their mouths first, so that they can wet them with their own saliva. They believe the seed gets some of their DNA that way, and the plant that will grow will be tuned with it. It will perfectly match the owner and be healthy for him/her. I believe it too, and it is a wonderful thought.


Loads of gifts

One of the features of fruit trees that has always touched me is the fact trees don't just produce a few fruits, but lots of them, actually an incredible amount of them.

I would call it generosity, and I am not afraid of 'humanizing' something that could barely be seen as a natural strategy of the trees to get the highest chances for reproduction.

If there is something in the Universe that is spiritual, that is trees. The energy I feel in their presence is enormous, and there is nothing like resting under a tree, thinking under a tree, looking at the sky from under a tree.

An homage to the opulent beauty of a blossoming tree, here our mighty prune:

MAJESTIC PLUM TREE PLUM TREE


The golden balance

Yes, most of the blossoms in yesterday's photo will bear fruits. Can you count them? ;)

I actually tried once, but it took too long... anyway, we are in the range 1000-10000! On a single tree!

And what you see is actually only a part of the tree: a big chunck on the right side fell last year, with a big boom... No, it didn't bang Luca's already peculiar head, but it could as well have done. As there were lots of dandelions under the tree at that time, and I was daily spending a lot of time there during those days. So, lucky me it fell when I was not there, it would have had tragic consequences, if not even killing me.

What I wanted to communicate with this, is that nature basically exists without us. Sure we help the trees spreading their seeds, there is some kind of symbiotic relationship in between us, and I even feel some kind of spirituality, as I expressed yesterday. But we should always remember that while we can't survive without nature, nature easily can without us.

One of the common mistakes we do is that of idealizing and 'humanising' nature, like if leaving all to nature will naturally create the best conditions for us, but this is not necessarily the case. Something a born idealist like me has had hard times to accept, helped by age and experience.

Then, our relationship to nature is not an absolute one. It belongs to the more complicated world of relativity. Practically this means that, in the example above, keeping a fruit orchard is a balance in between leaving nature care for itself, and needing it to favor us too. The idea of just letting the trees be in peace and grow as they please has always inspired me, but I must admit that when you work with it in practice, some kind of human intervention is needed. Like cleaning the trees, as I am doing now, and pruning them, something I would like to look at deeper tomorrow.


Pruning or not

Right, pruning is the best example of what I wrote yesterday.

Now, I was born in a city and still haven't understood a thing about how to do it, so you better read this article, "Fruit tree pruning" in the one more time precious Wikipedia. It's an excellent introduction to this matter.

In that article there is no doubt whatsoever pruning is necessary. I must admit that after having had trees myself, I must bend and consider it relatively right. Before, I had a tendency to follow the 100% nature ideology, which is a very fine idealism, but not always what is better in practice. When I saw those poor (I thought) trees, naked and very hard pruned, I felt it like it probably was one of the usual, conventional ways of solving problems, an unnecessary cruelty. And I thought to myself: "Why should we do something nature doesn't do by itself? Why should pruning be necessary? Isn't it just one of the usual things people does just because everybody else does like that?"

Once again, I have to point out that nature works with the huge numbers, not with the single entities. In fact nature does pruning, it does it the hard way: messy growth, branches that fall down, or are broken by the wind, or get ill and fall out, or because the tree is too loaded and can't bear the weight. This is no problem from nature's point of view, as there will always be lots of other trees.

But, of course, you want your own trees to prosper and bear a lot of fruits, so pruning will be one of the tools you will need to master. As written in Wikipedia:

“ Many home fruit growers make the mistake of planting a tree, then neglecting it until it begins to bear. But careful attention to pruning and training young trees will ultimately determine their productivity and longevity. Good pruning and training will also prevent later injury from weak crotches that break under snow or fruit load. ”

Like the prune we saw yesterday, the one that was nearly going to bang my head...

Who knows me know how much I love Masanobu Fukuoka, and one would expect him to advocate not-pruning, but in reality his stand is a bit more complex. You can read about it here: "On growing fruit trees" (http://fukuokafarmingol.info/fover.html#ov16)
{unfortunately, yet another link gone dead since. In stead here it is a very thorough permaculture article:}
"Fukuoka’s Food Forest"

Have a nice week-end (which includes hugging a tree :)


Some ground facts about trees

Honestly, shouldn't we all boycott the Olympic Games in Beijing, China, demanding:

  1. stop censoring Internet.
  2. stop dumping with cheap products made by children and enslaved workers, full of asbestos, formaldehyde and what is worse.
  3. leave the Tibetans in peace.

We can start with this, then they will have all rights to boycott us and demand their conditions..

Little time left today, so I will just offer you a link to a Flash presentation, where some basic facts about trees are in fact presented. It is for children, then perfectly fit for all of us, children in spirit. It is called "Exploring the secret life of trees".
Have fun.


Not so indulgent with those who cut trees

..or.. given the Dalai Lama doesn't suggest a boycott, then the opposite of boycotting: mass participation to the games, but bearing "Free Tibet" banners in stead of the national ones, or streaking with the same slogan painted on the body? Lots of ideas, because something has to be done, for sure.

Were you able to complete the Flash presentation yesterday? ;) I got actually stuck once, as I chose to run the Spanish version, and there were a few words i didn't know at a certain point, eh, eh, eh [that was the child in me again]

Today I would like to recall this fundamental function of the trees: carbon dioxide reduction.
It is actually complicated to assess how much CO2 trees 'digest', as you can read here about what George Monbiot defined 'purchasing indulgences': carbon offset.

My conclusion: repairing is never the same as not damaging and preventing.
This Universe is not dominated by our rational simplifications, but by subtle chaos. Any aggression we act upon the environment affects that chaos, to an extent that makes our needed intervention very complicated. This is in fact the situation we are in, right now.


Shaping futures

..or.. dialog? The Dalai Lama calls for dialog and nonviolence.

Lots of interactive learning today. More features of the trees, you got some informations about roots last, now it is time for shapes and other matters related to trees. If you can't plant a tree right now, wouldn't it be nice anyway to design your own tree? You can do it here:

Shapes of trees

Have a nice day!


In a fragrant mood

Trees have got it all: the function, the use, the shape, the color, and the perfume.

I would like to expand on the last one. As I realized during the last few days, that I had never really been aware of how much and beautifully trees smell. But being so much around the prunes I was immersed in the incredible perfume of the blossoming flowers. It is not very strong, just the finest of the finest.

My nose is not big and long for nothing, I have got a very sensitive sense of smell. Which is kind of a nightmare often, as being in urban environments is like bathing in chemicals, petrochemicals and all other kinds of horrible smells. They are so strong and penetrating, I can really have hard times. To the point of getting sick at times.

On the other side, I can appreciate to the highest when I have got the chance to smell the naturally sophisticated good ones. And I really love this one from the prunes.

When I walk through the garden, it's like a session of aromatherapy.
With the bushes of lavender definitely being overwhelming too.

LAVENDER BUSH LAVENDER


Beauties in the orchard

The scents, hmmm, they are closely bound to memories. Especially our love ones.

And now I will introduce my fiancée :)

PLUM TREES PLUM TREES

It's the closest one you see in the picture, she makes the tastiest blue plums in the world :)

No, I would have many fiancées then, as all fruit trees are. But it is true this is a real beauty this year, completely white with blossoms, [holy stone, does she want to marry me?] and those will become some unbelievably good dark plums, that taste fantastic. This tree in particular I visit very often on summertime, when is hot and I take a little pause from work under its shade and eating lots of those juicy plums.

Right: how do you know if a tree is male or female?? Or if they are straight, gay, lesbians or trans???

For sure, unlike their caretaker, sob, they are having a very active sex life in these days. Quite an orgy with bees and 'bombos' (bumblebees), and I don't know who more, so busy avidly sucking nectar here and there. So much happening Under the Yum Yum Tree.
Incidentally, you might have heard that bees are suffering a huge disappearing in the world, but their presence here is the demonstration that if you prepare a nice environment for them, they do arrive and thrive. It is true they are not as many as usual though.

About our exciting issue, there is plenty of inspiration to be found on the net, just look at here: sexy fruit art
{spoiler: not suitable to people older than 18yrs}
The pressing question still remains though: are trees male or female, or something completely different?

Internet is again great because you can always discover you are not the only one in the world to ask yourself questions. And as a, bit funny, example you can see here how many doubts there are about this matter:
Subject: Sex of Trees

So, is there any All What You Ever Wanted To Know About Trees Sex and You Never Dared To Ask somewhere?
What more appropriate than 'datesex', or the Sex Life of the Date to start with?

Have a nice week-end and, for those of you that are celebrating it, a merry Easter.


One woman, many trees

Last week for this month's blog, and I will dedicate it to some of the people in the world that have done something special in relation to trees.

It is nearly too easy to guess who will be first, sure: Wangari Maathai.
Here with one man that might be USA's next President:

WANGARI MAATHAI AND BARAK OBAMA WANGARI AND BARAK IN NAIROBI

She is a professor, a Nobel Prize winner, a sustainable developer, the founder of the Green Belt Movement and, as we know already, a great tree planter.

You can hear her voice here, in this interview called "The Woman Who Planted Trees", and it is from that wonderful site, Planetary Voices, filled up with one interesting podcast after the other. It's all so inspiring, and this one in particular is no exception, for sure. Enjoy.


One more remarkable podcast

Podcasts at Planetary Voices Radio, are like eating juicy fruits. Once you start, it is difficult to stop... you want more and more... I think I have been listening to nearly all of them!

Usually I keep quiet while doing my morning Yoga, but some days I accompany it with listening to the radio. Only Planetary Voices can do though, the only one allowed. It's three in one for me: learning new sustainable things, practicing English and discovering there are some wonderful people on Earth.

Now that we are here, there is another podcast regarding trees. It's about Cambodia's forests this time. Lots of challenges and some successes, which you can listen about: "Journey with a remarkable tree".


Hugs

Today it is about tree-huggers. Not about what has become a way of calling environmental activists in general (a scarcely flattering one in some people's intentions)
Most others choose this name for themselves, in its positive meaning.

You might read an interesting article here, using the denomination, Hugging the Tree-Huggers. With some discussion on the collaborating strategy chosen by green organizations and their former 'enemies', when dealing with conflicts.

I want to write today about people who actually hugs the trees, mainly for the sake of protecting them.

We can certainly start with the Chipko movement, the Indian women's group (and men's too, somewhere in the background), hugging the trees for saving them from looting, Right Livelihood Award in 1987. Here they were:

CHIPKO WOMEN CHIPKO WOMEN

A historic and beautiful photo that says it all, so I will leave you for today with it in your eyes.


Julia on Luna

And how not to recall Julia "Butterfly" Hill, here on her beloved tree Luna:

JULIA BUTTERFLY HILL (photo by Shaun Walker)

She did much more than hugging the tree, she lived on the top of it, a 180 foot (55 m.) tall Redwood tree on the Californian coast. For more than 2 years, to save it.

I still get the shivers when i think about her story. And a deep sense of gratitude for her being.

Perhaps you have wondered, as much as me, what happened with her, after that unbelievable action. Does anyone think she has settled down (literally! :) now, and lives a passive and comfortable life in some urban suburbs? I don't see any hands raised, and you are right. She is of course right in the middle of a new project, in Brazil, she describes on her blog, Thoughts from Julia.
{update: she is moving to her new personal site now:}
Julia Butterfly Hill

Again: the picture says it all, and I don't feel the need to add more, other than this is what everybody should study in our History books at schools.


More tree savers

The tree-huggers mentioned in the last days are not the first to do this. There is one historic precedent in particular that is little known.

It is about the population Bishnois.
Who were they? About six millions people, living in India, mainly Rajasthan, but also some neighboring regions like Uttar Pradesh and others.

We need to go back to year 1485 to understand how it all started. On that date the guru Jambheshwar or Jambho Ji, founded what can be considered as a religious sect. He laid down 29 principles having to be followed by the members, including vegetarianism and protecting nature and living beings in all their forms. As usual with religions, those were mixed together with other rules that are more questionable, but we have to think of the conditions of the living at those times, and the need for hygienic rules and so on.

On year 1730, in Khejadli, Rajastan, something happened that pioneered the Chipko movement, in a bloodier way though unfortunately: as much as 363 people (men, women and children) died to protect their trees, probably the Kandi (Prosopis Cineraria), a legume they used to eat (leaves), feed animals, and in hardest times, even the bark was used to make some flour.

KANDI (PROSOPIS CINERARIA)

I would have liked to bring you some pictures of the Bishnois, but all what I found was copyrighted (damned copyrighting!). So you will have to use your imagination or visit this site: Bishnoi.org

If you wonder, yes, they still live around the same areas, and still living their environmentalist, ascetic, caring, compassionate religious life.


Don't worry, never abandoning the trees!

Time to conclude this month's blog that I enjoyed very much, hope it has been the same for you.

Apart from tree-huggers and tree-savers, there is one last aspect I would like to mention that is equally important: seed-savers.

More and more species are disappearing for ever, both due to the changes in our environment, and because of the industrial agriculture, that has been selecting the varieties being more suitable for commerce. This has lead to the progressive death of the trees that were more rustic, or with irregular shapes, or with fruits that are not appreciated for their form, taste; usability for harvest, or transport or transformation.

But some brave people have, single-handed or organized, tried to save the seeds and shrubs of all the old species they could find.

Their work is so important, yet very forsaken by the public attention. I would like here to mention a few of them, to contribute to their precious work.

Some links to get you started:

Wikipedia -Seed saving

Seedsave.org

Seed Savers Network

Navdanya

Seedsavers - Youtube channel

Daughter of the Soil: A seed saver's guide

Happy tree climbing to everyone :)