Unstuffed: Populus balsamifera and Catalpa speciosa

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Populus balsamifera and Catalpa speciosa

After giving it some thought, I've chosen one of the balsam poplars in the park next door, to observe for the year. I walk by it everyday, making it really easy to notice and track it through the seasons.

It's one of three poplars in the park and I'm looking forward to getting to know this one better.

It's already starting to develop buds! They'll be ready to harvest soon, though I doubt I'll be able to reach any on this tree, unless the wind blows off a branch or two.

While in the park I remembered the lovely catalpa tree growing across from the poplars and on a whim, I've decided to study it too!

I love catalpa trees. They are so exotic looking with their tropical looking leaves and orchid-like flowers. I only just learned recently that catalpas have medicinal uses too, which I'm excited to discover more about.

Stay tuned for more updates from the Tree Year!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...: that sounds like two really interesting trees! Welcome to the Tree Year Project.; January 21, 2011 at 3:49 AM
Amber said...: I'm really looking forward to this project. Such a great idea. Thanks for creating it!; January 21, 2011 at 7:07 AM
J.Garlough said...: Great verdict! Smart choice to study two trees so close to home, and great choice of species.

Careful with the balsam poplars though, they are quite sly. On winter walks, stands of young ones perched on the horizon will lure you off your intended path with their light covered bark... they'll pretend to be birch full of Chaga [wikipedia]....; January 21, 2011 at 11:29 AM
Amber said...: Sly indeed J! Hmmm....birches would be a good choice for the Tree Year too. Yellow birch especially with its yummy wintergreen-ness.; January 21, 2011 at 1:55 PM
Urban Girl said...: Such a great project! Can't wait to see updates.; January 25, 2011 at 9:47 PM

Raison d'etre

In 2008 I didn't buy anything new for the whole year. Food and basic toiletries (but not toilet paper) were the obvious exceptions (twice I broke my own rule). Used items were allowed, but I tried really hard to reduce consumption as much as possible.

I finished my year successfully, and along the way learned a lot about how much the world consumes, the waste we produce, sustainability, voluntary simplicity, climate change, peak oil, resource depletion, the water crisis, the food crisis, voting with your dollar, voting with your fork....

Now, I've transformed into a slightly nutty, very passionate, gardening, preserving, DIYing, simple living, nature loving, weed eating, backyard medicine making, urban homesteader, and I still don't use toilet paper!

With the help of the Awesomedudeguy (ADG), I'm continuing my exploration of living lightly and frugally, while increasing my self-sufficiency and resiliency, staying debt free, and preparing for a climate changed, resource depleted world, in uncertain economic times.

My nothing new restriction is lifted, but I continue to be a gentle, local consumer as much as possible.

My hope is that some of the information and resources I post about here will be helpful to others. Thanks so much for stopping by !

Yours in unstuffing,
Amber

"Forgive me if I never visit. I am from the fields, you know, and while quite at home with dandelion, make a sorry figure for the drawing room" ~Emily Dickinson

"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like covetousness, as that.... I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden, with very moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the remainder of my life to the culture of them and the study of nature." ~Abraham Cowley

"The laws of nature are under no obligation to cater to our culture’s emotionally charged fantasies of perpetual progress and limitless growth." ~John Michael Greer

"Sometimes we think we are too small to make a difference in this big world. Our actions seem insignificant in comparison to global issues such as climate change and population growth. However, the reality is that action on an individual level is exactly how big changes are made. Without individual and family sustainability, there’s no community sustainability. And without community sustainability, there’s no global sustainability. In fact, earth-wide change is absolutely impossible without individual change.
It really does come down to you and me."
~From Living Sustainably: It's Your Choice

"The universal conspiracy of the silent-assertion lie is hard at work always and everywhere, and always in the interest of a stupidity or a sham, never in the interest of a thing fine or respectable. Is it the most timid and shabby of all lies? It seems to have the look of it. For ages and ages it has mutely laboured in the interest of despotisms and aristocracies and chattel slaveries, and military slaveries, and religious slaveries, and has kept them alive; keeps them alive yet, here and there and yonder, all about the globe; and will go on keeping them alive until the silent-assertion lie retires from business--the silent assertion that nothing is going on which fair and intelligent men and women are aware of and are engaged by their duty to try to stop." ~Mark Twain

"It is not enough simply to abstain from theft...We must remember that nothing in this world really belongs to us. At best, we are merely borrowers. It is our duty, therefore, to borrow no more from the world than we absolutely need, and to make full and proper use of it. Taking more than we need, and wasting it, is a form of stealing from the rest of humankind."
~Commentary on Sutra 30 The Yoga Aphorisms of Patanjali