Trees

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Re: Trees

Post by Nanohedron »

GreenWood wrote: Wed Feb 02, 2022 3:35 pm@Nano I wasn't sure, for a while I thought maybe it would be seen as defacing a personal photo or something.
Nah, it was just playfulness, and that is a most Chiffly thing. But so is thoughtfulness, and I'm appreciative that you had concerns.

FWIW, I don't post personal photos, and it's only for the reason that, to this day, I haven't gone to the trouble to learn how (in part because I like to keep my Internet presence minimal, and in part because I'm just lazy). And it's just as well, because I'd probably be boring everyone in the Pub to death with a gazillion pictures of my cat (once I get a new one, anyway). Instead, I trawl the Web for pics that suit my posting needs. I cannot rightly lay any kind of claim on them. :)

It may be Imbolc, but we lack the Gulf Stream, so the regional climate has more in common with Siberia, and local trees are more likely to bud closer to Bealtaine, in late April at the earliest; tonight will see a low of -14F (-25.5C). For us, meteorological Spring begins with March even if there's still snow on the ground, and there usually is. Such is the Upper Midwest in the US. But it occurs to me, especially this year, that we may see earlier Spring warming than we normally count on. While I'd welcome that on a personal level, on a global level? Not so much.
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Re: Trees

Post by Katharine »

Nanohedron wrote: Wed Feb 02, 2022 4:15 pm I'd probably be boring everyone in the Pub to death with a gazillion pictures of my cat (once I get a new one, anyway).
There are people on the internet who don't want to see cat pictures???
Here's tae us--
Wha's like us?
Damn few--
And they're a' deid--
Mair's the pity.
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Re: Trees

Post by Nanohedron »

Katharine wrote: Wed Feb 02, 2022 5:54 pmThere are people on the internet who don't want to see cat pictures???
Good question. If such people exist, I think we should irritate them. So in keeping with the thread topic, here's a cat tree (genus Felidendron) in full bloom:

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Re: Trees

Post by Katharine »

Possibly the best kind of tree!
Here's tae us--
Wha's like us?
Damn few--
And they're a' deid--
Mair's the pity.
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Re: Trees

Post by GreenWood »

@Nano

Here most years it stays above five degrees, but anything under ten degrees is the same for me, right down to minus 25. Actually very cold is often acceptably dry, while north of zero is often wet or damp, like England...almost always cold and wet in England.... as I mentioned a while back :-) .

We are in an ice age now, and an interglacial period of that. Most of earth's history is out of ice age though. Rapid change of climate is not good for adaptation, and we don't want to end up like Venus or Pluto either, but outside of that it is very hard to discern exactly what the anthropogenic effects are, and even if they are negative. For habitat, species and pollution it is all much more obvious, so sometimes I think all those different main difficulties are just swept up under the carpet theme of global warming, to be more ignored. People tend to, or choose to, dedicate their attention to a priority .

In a few billion years we are going to have to figure out how to get to another star... probably attach boosters to earth and live Ark like underground for thousands of years or something...but who knows what level of science and travel will exist then....maybe will be importing fuel for the sun ?

I am not much a cat person, though I appreciate them from a distance...a reflection of their own nature maybe (except when they are hungry or want attention). I used to have a full pedigree Siamese cat in England, Amberwich Pendragon, which was left with friends when we left. In Spain we took in a Siamese street cat as kitten, but it slowly went wild. When we moved home, it savaged me when I tried to place it into a cat box. Transporting the box in the middle well of a moped to destination was too much for it. It was a proper container, but it went beserk and half way along burst out and dashed off, never to be seen again.

The nearest tree to your Felidendron around here is on the other side of the straights of Gibraltar in north Africa, the Capranthus Marocensis


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(Web Photo, not mine)
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Re: Trees

Post by Nanohedron »

GreenWood wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 1:05 pmHere most years it stays above five degrees, but anything under ten degrees is the same for me, right down to minus 25. Actually very cold is often acceptably dry, while north of zero is often wet or damp, like England...almost always cold and wet in England.... as I mentioned a while back :-) .
Just remember the hardy maxim that there is no bad weather, just bad clothing. Layering grows from mere necessity into a fashion opportunity. :wink:

Speaking of bad clothing: The other evening (when we were headed for the aforementioned really deep freeze) I got back from an errand at the same time as a neighbor, and wanting to be neighborly, I was going to call out, "Remind me why I live here?" when lo and behold, and in -7F (-21.6C), an immortal gets out of his car in shorts and a t-shirt. True story. Words fail after a scene like that, so in the end I said nothing after all. Needless to say, he was moving pretty briskly. Bloody Minnesotans ... we think we're so tough, we don't even know how to dress ourselves.
GreenWood wrote:The nearest tree to your Felidendron around here is on the other side of the straights of Gibraltar in north Africa, the Capranthus Marocensis
A charming example of convergent evolution. It looks like harvest time, too.
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Re: Trees

Post by Tunborough »

Nanohedron wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 2:08 pm
GreenWood wrote:The nearest tree to your Felidendron around here is on the other side of the straights of Gibraltar in north Africa, the Capranthus Marocensis
A charming example of convergent evolution. It looks like harvest time, too.
Image

"Definitely harvest time for that felidendron. Yum."
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Re: Trees

Post by Nanohedron »

Tunborough wrote: Fri Feb 04, 2022 4:18 pm "Definitely harvest time for that felidendron. Yum."
There's nothing quite like a meal that would like to eat you back.
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Re: Trees

Post by an seanduine »

Not to be a party pooper. . . .and appreciative of Greenwood´s Latinate sense of humour, those Morroccan Goats are performing the same basic initial harvesting of Argan nuts from the Argania Spinosa tree as the harvesting of Kopi Luwak Coffee beans by Palm Civets. The nuts are harvested from their respective scats to produce a precious end product.
Whodathunkit. . .a much sought after cosmetic tree oil and the worlds spendiest coffee have to be . . .er. . .pre-processed by some animal first ingesting the raw material. :o

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Re: Trees

Post by Nanohedron »

Wikipedia doesn't shy away from the implications in the argan topic:

"A tradition in some areas of Morocco allows goats to climb argan trees to feed freely on the fruits. The kernels are then later retrieved from the goat droppings, considerably reducing the labour involved in extraction at the expense of some potential gustatory aversion."

One wonders what the goats must think.

This matter of "some potential gustatory aversion" (I can hear Violet Crawley wryly uttering it) has now led to the industry reverting to processing instead by hand; unlike kopi luwak, apparently goatly digestion doesn't transform the product sufficiently to justify keeping to the practice, and what with argan oil being such a darling of the foreign market, dirhams are enough at stake for all-human labor to win out. I can tell you that I too don't respond well to the prospect of goat feces in my hair or salad.

By the way, I've had kopi luwak - or so I was told; in any case they got 4 bucks out of me for a cup of it - and I honestly don't get all the hype. Call me philistine, but it was just ... coffee. If anything, I found it disappointingly bland. If that's how it's supposed to be, I think people are being had.
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Re: Trees

Post by chas »

Tunborough wrote: Mon Jan 31, 2022 11:22 am Around here, it is the emerald ash borer that is devastating the ash trees.

Image

We are fortunate in having other native trees that still thrive here, like black walnut, in the foreground, and eastern red cedar, in the background.

Image
We have it down in the mid-Atlantic US too. Three years or so ago, the trails I run on were glistening green for much of the summer. Then the county took down all the ash in the whole park system. The beetles are starting to make a comeback, but it's nothing like it was a few years ago.
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Re: Trees

Post by chas »

GreenWood wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 5:32 pm
Algarve is a special place, an unusual and mysterious place also. I would not know where to start, it is sort of abandoned in modern terms, some tourism but not much, with its boom bust that we saw in southern europe. I used to live in Spain before, but the country was getting overrun in the tourist areas. Portugal is poorer in comparison, but more like Spain as I remembered it in the late 80's. It has a vast and endless history to it, the people are generally more sensible or contemplative than the Spanish, quieter for it. Portuguese society understands saudaded, a sort of deep poetic or spiritual melancholy, and among the various kinds of traditional music the Fado (or fate) is probably most well known.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1YriVM8sC7M

As explained by Amália Rodrigues in this song, it is based on the power of the ocean over the lives of sailors and fishermen.
Geez, I love Amalia. That song just oozes with the spiritual melancholy you speak of.
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Re: Trees

Post by GreenWood »

chas wrote: Tue Feb 08, 2022 3:05 pm
GreenWood wrote: Wed Jan 26, 2022 5:32 pm
Algarve is a special place, an unusual and mysterious place also...
Geez, I love Amalia. That song just oozes with the spiritual melancholy you speak of.
Love, longing and despair, the life of a seafaring people... the emptiness of time and the uncertainty of the future on a landscape that accepts all.



Portugal is also well known for its poetry, previously Lisbon was also known as "a jewel of the continent". In the sixteenth century the country lost "the cream of its nobility" as well as its king, in Morocco, the 1755 earthquake then destroyed what Lisbon had then again become, and also set the country back a long way. Before the 15th century seafaring was mostly trade with northern europe, in the 15th century was voyages of discovery, and from the 16th century on much more trade around the world. 20th century saw it return to its own borders. Now it is somewhat abandoned , not concerned about what it wants to be but never losing its identity, a lot of emmigration but few immigrants (they refuse even being sent here) , quiet and contemplative.... somewhere for anyone looking for another world.


Unlike Spain (or UK even) , Brasil actually fully formed part of Portugal for a while, so it brings a different kind of definition to the Atlantic . In Spain you have flamenco which in spite of its popularity and presence is still a kind of "subculture" in the country, it is more direct whereas fado is more sentimental and poetic. Both countries have a separate local folk music also. Unless you obtain rare recordings or visit local, what you hear from both of those is a form that only more recently gained a wider acceptance, and that now sometimes is becoming stylised etc. The same goes for traditionsl Irish music also to some degree I think, where there is a difference between dance music and traditional tunes which converge in some ways and then also get modernised by some ?

This fado is more of inland

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rjuwkxa65Dk

Which I found looking for a fado flute player, and only now discovered the playing of Rao Kyao, he plays on the above and this one


https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uzbLqQMmFpk


Which is different, he is said to follow a slightly Moorish or Indian style of playing which are historical influences present in some Portuguese music, and is performing in the Alentejo (southern Portugal) Cultural Centre of Toronto in that last clip ! Simpler and friendlier times ?

I searched Chiff forum for his name and doesn't seem mentioned.

Here is a more recent fado singer..it clips at one point makes her sound like she is shouting but anyway...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yejaUUBqtr0



The steel strung Portuguese guitar is partly derived from the English guitar, it is said seafarers brought it and its influence to Portugal where cittern was also played, and it is characteristic of fado music.

Well, it isn't Irish trad and won't suit everyone, is little known as a form of music (even being in Spain for many years I had not heard of it), but it is very much part of Portugal.

There are trees in that first video

:-)



@MrGumby and anyone, where I haven't replied is because I'm still writing or thinking over... it is one of the difficulties on forums for me, because I browse and jot down instant replies at times, and then there are other replies that take ages (like the above was prepared over a week). With having different existing themes in draft, missing comments to me occasionally undoubtedly (and so always a sense that someone might think I rejected their say) , and so on, and preparing new (e.g. where I am with tuning a Rudall and how that is/impressions), it gets a bit chaotic. At least I enjoy writing :-) . Those are beautiful photos Mr. Gumby.
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Re: Trees

Post by Mr.Gumby »

GreenWood wrote: Wed Feb 16, 2022 7:16 pm



@MrGumby and anyone, where I haven't replied is because I'm still writing or thinking over... it is one of the difficulties on forums for me, because I browse and jot down instant replies at times, and then there are other replies that take ages (like the above was prepared over a week).
Don't worry about it, that's the way forum posts go.

I have a few more pics here. As I said, the area where I live is relatively treeless, trees hang on in deep valleys that give a bit of shelter. You'd have to go inland to get nice mature trees. The best are found in the old estates, the old gentlemen of the late 19th century liked to plant their arboretums with rare species and some of those persist One of my regular walking spots is Coole park, near Gort in Co Galway. You can go around there with your bundle of Yeats under your arm, see the wild swans, walk the seven woods and all that. Or just enjoy walking under the cover of old trees.

This is a great Redwood, the tree Lady Agusta Gregory sat under to contemplate the celtic twilight, or whatever she did there:

Image

and here again, with the Lady's bench :

Image

And a view of the walled garden, with on the right the copper beech 'autograph tree' where the literary circle of the time carved their names : George Bernard Shaw, J. M. Synge, Augustus John, An Craoibhín (Douglas Hyde, first President of Ireland) A.E. (G.W. Russell), W. B. Yeats, Sean O'Casey, as well as Lady Gregory and her son Robert and that crowd. If you're into that sort of thing. Otherwise it's just a nice place to sit or walk.

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My brain hurts

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Re: Trees

Post by chas »

GreenWood wrote: Wed Feb 16, 2022 7:16 pm

Here is a more recent fado singer..it clips at one point makes her sound like she is shouting but anyway...

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yejaUUBqtr0

The steel strung Portuguese guitar is partly derived from the English guitar, it is said seafarers brought it and its influence to Portugal where cittern was also played, and it is characteristic of fado music.

Well, it isn't Irish trad and won't suit everyone, is little known as a form of music (even being in Spain for many years I had not heard of it), but it is very much part of Portugal.
I have a few albums by Christina Branco. The earlier ones are a little more adveturesome, with some rock elements, the latter more traditional fado.

I always thought of the Portuguese guitarra as a cross between a guitar and bouzouki. My wife and I bought one a couple of decades ago, thinking we'd learn to play, but it hasn't happened. We visited Portugal in the 90's, caught some fado in Lisbon and Coimbra and fell in love with the sound of the instrument.
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