Nurture your Nature

Leaves

I collected leaves earlier this week. Not the beautiful colors of autumn, just the greens of nascent summer.

They aren't all 'green'.

Ash is however! Around here I think it defines the color! That medium green green that becomes a neutral color in the tallgrass prairie towns. Most of the leaves of other trees were too, except for younger maple and locust leaves with a tint of yellow or redbud with amber. The Kentucky bean tree leaflets are darker green and the smoke bush is strongly purple.

Leaves aren't all the same though.

I challenge you-all to go out in the yard or park or stroll down a street. Pick about 10 different leaves (and take notice of the trees) while the neighbors aren't looking (it will only confirm their suspicions).

Look at both sides and edges, feel the texture, notice how they are structured. Use all your senses. Don't taste them unless you know they are edible.

Report back to me!



Moon over mulberry

When the cloying scent of linden
lingers in the moist June air,
as the moon sets over mulberry,
hear birds chatter soft and clear.

In the coolness of wee hours
before the orange streaks herald dawn,
before the stars fade in the twilight,
before the bus leaves and I'm gone:

remember the sweetness of the mulberries;
watch the moonglow cold and fair;
know that I am with you always;
know that I'm the one that erred.

copyright 2008 Kåre Enga [165.119] 2008-06-17

Note: the original prompt was about the waxing moon setting over the mulberry trees behind where I live.



My notes

Silver maple: yellow green to green, but the reverse becoming more silver with age. New leaves and very soft. The sugar maple is medium green, their trees give a much denser shade.

Tulip tree: 4 smooth lobes, large. It was in bloom. The flowers have 6 creamy petals with a splash of apricot, that smell like apple peels. Reminds me of magnolia.

Elm: rougher, serrated edge. The ribs on the back look like evenly spaced slats, or venetian blinds. This tree was the ideal urn shape.

Pear: glossy almost waxy. Smooth on the back.

Spruce: soft blue

Juniper: bright green with silver green fruits.

Gum: 5 slightly serrated lobes.

Redbud: a new blue-purple leaf (same color both sides), heart shaped.

Smoke bush: red-purple oval, smooth edged, the reverse green.

Sycamore: furry, the reverse fuzzy white. A yellower green, strong ribbed. The tree can look funny in the early spring with large leaves sparse among the branches. The bark is multicolored and the tree feels 'open' giving a dappled shade.

Locust: smooth leaflets, nasty thorns along the branches. A Spring green giving a frilly feel to the tree.

Kentucky bean: not as smooth, darker green, leaflets more spaced.

Ash: boring because it is so common here. The leaf to which the others are compared.

Oak: from the red oak family as its lobes are pointed. Smooth and glossy in June. Fuzzy nodes on the back.

As writers we use words to paint pictures. Sometimes we use just the common ones, the expected ones, but even leaves are more than just green! The come in many shades and multi-shades. They smell like sage or apple; taste like tea or spinach; grow to the size of an ant or an umbrella; they rustle, float and weep; are waxy, fuzzy, rough-as-leather, (seldom speak).

There are many technical words to describe the differences between them. A beginner's or young-adult book on leaves is a good place to start. The more obscure terms should probably be used sparingly to not lose the reader.

But leaves are more than pretty autumn colors.

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