Five things

[truepenny]

1. Dave Freer could use some help. He and his family are emigrating from South Africa to Australia, and their definition of "family" rightly includes their dogs and cats. As Dave says in his FAQ:

They had always been part of moving budget: we’re selling our home to do this, and will have to start afresh in Australia. The part we didn’t figure on was currency fluctuation and quarantine costs. Thus we have some money towards moving them, but simply not nearly enough.

Dave is putting his novel Save the Dragons up on the web, a chapter at a time on the Scheherazade model, to raise the necessary money. Waltz over to the website to read and/or donate.

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2. Also, while I'm here, I missed Outer Alliance Pride Day--not in any sort of deliberate fashion, but because I've fallen into a hermit-like hole. I can, just about, nag myself into making posts, but keeping up, even with my minuscule reading list, has become more than I can cope with. I've probably missed a lot more than Outer Alliance Pride Day.

So anyway, yeah, Outer Alliance. Support thereof. A story of mine featuring queer characters.

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3. Instead of the internet--or actual work--I've been conducting guerrilla warfare with various parts of the yard. Started with the Anthropophagous Rosebush, cleared the sidewalks of encroaching sod, cleared some breathing room for the Grandfathered Rosebush, removed dozens of tiny maple seedlings. I like gardening when it's a full-contact sport.

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4. We have thought for years that the big green thing in the back yard was a flourishing bush, but closer inspection reveals a tree stump: the "bush" is a thicket of saplings. My question, revealing my complete lack of woodsy lore: what kind of tree is it?

ETA: It's the rootstock of an apple tree.












Yes, that's me in the second picture. Photography by mirrorthaw.

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5. I mentioned Peter Mulvey's new CD, right?

Comments

[halfmoon-mollie.livejournal.com]

5. I mentioned Peter Mulvey's new CD, right?

He's in town in two weeks. Unfortunately, I'm volunteering at the Jonathan Byrd concert that night. How lucky are we to have two such musicians to chose from on such a night?

[jonquil.livejournal.com]

Does the bush-thing ever bloom? The leaves and bark look a bit ornamental flowering-plum (peach, cherry) to me.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Um. Embarrassingly, I'm not sure. I don't remember it ever blooming.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

I want to say it's an apple tree. If the saplings are coming up around a stump, that is probably the root stock. All the good pictures I can find have fruit in them.

http://www.sendingcircle.com/8-28-05/Apple%20Tree%20(1).JPG

http://www.feedmewp.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/20080824-apple.jpg

This is just leaves, but with rust or something.

http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/hort/news/orchnews/2003/on0203a6f1.jpg

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Maybe. Although it never fruits and we have an apple tree ten feet away that does.

[stillnotbored.livejournal.com]

The fruiting part of an apple tree is grafted onto a hardy, non-fruiting root stock. If all the sprouts/saplings are coming up from around or under the stump. they probably wouldn't fruit.

My best guess anyway. It's been a few years since the horticulture classes and haunting garden centers. :)

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Huh. Okay then. Things I Didn't Know for a thousand, Alex. :)

Thanks!

[shadefell.livejournal.com]

My parents had a "wtf is this" tree that they cut back severely.

The next year it bloomed and fruited.

Apples ahoy!

Apparently, apple (and some other fruit) trees will stop producing fruit sometimes, but if you prune the heck out of them it shocks their system and then they fruit again.

[jerusha.livejournal.com]

Depending on what, if anything, it does regarding flowering or fruiting, I'm thinking beech, dogwood, or cherry (some cherry trees don't prominently fruit).

These guesses are all based on clicking around in an Ohio-based Tree Identifier (http://www.oplin.org/tree/index.html). I did the best I could based on your photos; you may have better luck with some of the detailed questions about leaf edge, veining pattern, and so forth, because you have the actual tree to look at.

[truepenny.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the link! That was very helpful. If I've navigated it correctly, the mystery tree is an apple--and Jaime's right, it's all root stock.

[alan-yee.livejournal.com]

I was one of the Outer Alliance Pride Day particpants. Nice to see another supporter.

I actually read "A Night in Electric Squidland" when it first came out and loved it. It's one of my favorite stories of yours.

[comrade-cat.livejournal.com]

I love that one too!