Sunday, March 18, 2012

Between Root Tip and Leaf Tip

South of Red Bluff, California, where I live, it is flat with deep clay soils.  It is a rural area with many almond, olive, and walnut orchards.  North of Red Bluff it his very hilly with an extensive blue oak (Quercus douglassii) deciduous forest (pictured below).  The acorns from these oak trees were a staple in the diet of the American Indians who have lived in this area for thousands of years.  This area is very rocky with volcanic soils.  

All the small towns and two cities (Chico and Redding) in the North Sacramento Valley have many large deciduous trees to help with shading in the hot dry summers.  The City of Corning, where I work for a school district, is called "The Olive City."  On my own property are many trees around our home, ponds, and irrigation ditches.  I am surrounded by beautiful trees.  

"One felt as if there was an enormous well behind them, filled up with ages of memory and long, slow, steady thinking; but their surface was sparkling with the present: like sun shimmering on the outer leaves of a vast tree, or on the ripples of a very deep lake. I don’t know but it felt as if something that grew in the ground – asleep, you might say, or just feeling itself as something between root-tip and leaf-tip, between deep earth and sky had suddenly waked up, and was considering you with the same slow care that it had given to its own inside affairs for endless years."
-  J.R.R. Tolkien, The Two Towers


"Long ago in Greece, King Cecrops established a city.  It was predicted that the city would become very famous and prosperous.  Many gods wanted to become the special patrons of the city.  In the end there were two contestants left--Athena and Poseidon. To resolve the conflict each one was supposed to give some kind of a gift to the city, and whoever presented the greater gift would win the contest.  Poseidon made a (water) spring appear in the city and promised a strong navy to the city.  Athena made the olive tree.  She told everyone how olives could be used for food, for cleansing, offerings, to light fires, and many other uses.  Athena won the contest and the city was called Athens in her honor."
- Ani's Greek Mythology

All Hail Athena!! 



1 comment:

  1. Beautiful mental imagery...makes me miss NorCal. Spring is my favourite time of year up there.

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