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Tuesday, January 18, 2022

ARBORICULTURE RECAPITULATES ARCHITECTURE! (Police called in!!)

 

In biology class we learned a slogan that used to be axiomatic: Ontology --gestation of an individual organism 'recapitulates' evolution of related organisms --phylogeny. 

What with one thing and another, I had to leave school at the tender age of 20, but found out later -- yesterday or 1/2 century ago, I forget-- that the old slogan was under attack. I was a young man with a family. I looked at my kids and they certainly seemed to be themselves. To each --and by and by there were 4-- I just said, "Hello Baby, there's great adventure ahead."

I decided the old axiom could stand --anywhere it wanted to. Welcoming new people to earth is something I've never tired of.

Then, as usual, I became a gardener. The challenge was to plant and prune according to the spirit of the architect, especially to workers who hammered things together, and to the workers who filled these buildings every day. Individuals. Next time you see a tree branch trimmed to contours of a window casing, you'll see what I mean. It's all part of a very big adventure.   

20 comments:

  1. The axiom does hold true. You are an artist with words.

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    1. And you are most kind in your compliment, Dear Susan. Thanks. It means a lot.

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    1. Dear Bruce, You've nailed it. I left CSUC in my junior year because I couldn't find work in Chico. Returned to Sacto., where I'd always had jobs --tutoring at City College, driving hop trucks during late summer harvests etc. Unemployment was topping 12% in Ca. and we took any work we could. I became a fine arts restorer, then a gardener and remained one. Put all 4 kids through college and now watch grandkids grow. I am now 52 years late to class but unbothered by it. I say Wowza a lot.

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  3. I do love a tree design that is worked within the landscape of progress. First, for the beauty of it, the symbiotic nature of beautiful and industry (think powerlines through forests), and second because it spurs creativity and art in unexpected places.

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    1. Dear Juli, the arboreal harmony and horticultural effects you describe are so important for the creativity and pleasant surprise you mention. We are, after all, living on a spherical garden circling a STAR. If that don't amaze us into art I give up.

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  4. Oh, I think we're ALL part of a very grand adventure. :) Hello, dear Geo. I'm so glad to see that you're still here writing delightful posts, just like always. There's more than enough changes in the world; you are like a majestic oak tree, still standing tall while spreading words of wisdom like perfect little acorns and sharing comfort like a patch of shade on a hot summer day.

    I hope you and Norma are doing fantastic.

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    1. Hello dear Susan, hello! Your response has been much awaited. I treasure the arboreal tenour of your lovely and encouraging comment. Norma is doing fantastic; I am a valid invalid. Anxiety attacks through mornings but afternoons are fine. You doubtless know the drill --our share of history. You deserve the best, Susan, and I believe you are pursuing it successfully. All my best wishes, and my thanks.

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  5. Hello Geo
    Based on my experience with nature, at least the 'nature' I've tried to cultivate, I should be considered an outlier in either ontology or epistemology. I would notice the plants were ailing, try to resuscitate, and then it's pretty much a limited hospice care. I'll try not to disturb the natural order until nature feels the need for my carbon elements. Cheers to you and Norma.

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    1. Hello Dear Mike! Carbon elements from us and elephants are accepted equally in nature. I considered cremation until a decade ago when a farmer friend had his ashes spread over his property by a crop-duster. I decided against it when several chunks of him came down. Nature has its own slower methods of reducing us and I'll stick with that. Til then, like you, I'll join forces with nature to keep things alive.

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  6. Superb contouring. I wait for the moon to wane before commencing pruning, so the tree sap is lower: but as long as there's adventure ahead me and my saplings are going to get on fine :-)

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    1. Dear Lisa, I always suspected your gardening included astronomy. When I look up at the night sky I shall think of adventure for you and your saplings --and for me.

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  7. Dear Geo, Susan said it best, “You are an artist with words.” I might not have known or heard them before, but I love how they sound. We are all gardeners in our own way and as we sow, so shall we reap. I think you have done extraordinarily well with your plantings whether they be thoughts, actions or your beautiful poems. Your children are so very fortunate to have a dad with so much wisdom.

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    1. Dear Arleen, Thanks. Any pretense to wisdom I've accidentally acquired over the years is mainly due to my children. "As we sow, so shall we reap". They are the teachers of me.

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  8. Trimmed to the architecture. Wow, I never considered that. Now I do. And who says you can't learn something new each day?

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    1. Dear Al Penwasser, Thanks kindly for encouraging comment. Don't know if I learn something new every day --but even if I don't, that's something.

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  9. Dear Geo., a coincidence? I just dictate a chapter into my computer with the German title: "Der Wein weint - oder der erzieherische Rückschnitt" roughly translated: "The wine weeps - or the educational pruning back".
    I'm - though reading books about it - not a master in cutting back. Though I love to see wisteria that nestles neatly under a roof.
    I admire creators of parks as Capability Brown - such a vision for future, such imagination how something will look when oneself is no longer there to see it!

    I am with you on "individuality" of the offsprings. I am so surprised to see how different the triplets are - the one-egg ones as much as their sister. The two look very alike - but their thinking and acting and what they love is so different. It is utterly right to say "Hello, Baby!" - ah, and I think one should guide them lovingly, but not prune too much and never cut them back...

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    1. Dear Britta, Thanks for a cogent and constructive comment on the gardener's art. The very Capable Lancelot Brown, pursued horticultural effects in the 1700s that we are still learning from. He had a fondness for Cedars. My own favorite is Italian Cyprus; I trimmed them into corkscrew spirals and candlesticks with little green "flames" on top. When I retired, I knew they would grow into tall pillars. I liked that too.

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    1. Dear Jackiesue, where the only difference is a vowel&"r" after "N", it must be both. When I stand real far back from our planet, they look the same to me.

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