Who are we? We are our stories. We are our pictures

Monday, April 20, 2009

Oak Trees, etc

The Wise Toad writes from Oregon that everything's covered in pollen out there and he's suffering. I know the feeling, but it won't hit us for a while. We have 12 wonderful large craggy bur oak trees. The lake and the oaks drive the whole ecology of the neighborhood, plants, birds, squirrels, even insects. Probably the type of people who live here too. Do oaken people chose to move here? or do they become stronger by living 'neath the oaks? We moved to Oakwood 20 years ago on Aug 1st. There were a few things I didn't factor in when we bought the house that I learned the first year.
1. October. The wonderful cool shade of the leathery oak leaves translates into a shitload of bio-mass to be dealt with in the Fall.
2. December. The street we're on is actually a narrow one-way alley that seldom sees a snowplow. 4-wheel drive. (Actually it isn't one-way, but you can't meet a vehicle without playing chicken until someone either backs up or pulls into a driveway.)
3. January. The winter winds are northwesterly and all the snow that falls out on the lake drifts into my driveway. Snowblower.
4. May. The bur oak, Quercus macrocarpa lays down a solid coat of powdery pollen coating on everything.
4a. I'm allergic to Quercus macrocarpa pollen.
Oh, and 5. The oak leaves are like dark green leather, but when they first come out they are a translucent lime green, and look like stained glass. For a week or two in the Spring everything is bathed in an otherworldly green light. Why isn't that in any of the books?

2 comments:

Todd Peterson said...

Looks like your carbon footprint expanded a bit on that beautiful August 1st day 20 years ago, Gunnar. Won't be long before you're making footprints in the pollen this year ... like I am today in Oregon. Expect we'll have some rain returning on Thursday to knock down the yellow stuff (which makes for an "interesting" slurry on my car windshield). Got a great crop of dandelions growing this year as well -- mellow yellow everywhere!

The Sniffling Toadster

Gunnar Berg said...

It's a small house. It started out as a 12 x 16 hunting shack a hundred years ago, with 5 additions, about one room at a time. And it's still smallish.