Spring
Spring is here. Or rather, spring is back. I really hope my willow tree survives. We planted it two, maybe three years ago in a space vacated by an old silver maple that started dropping huge limbs on our house and needed to be taken down. This March, for the first time, instead of just putting out leaves, it put out lots of fuzzy yellow catkins. I was excited to see that it was maturing and took some pictures. Then, we had several days of below freezing temperatures. All the leaves and catkins shriveled up, and it is looking rather sad now. My husband fertilized and watered it yesterday. I'm hoping it will be able to put out some new leaves soon.
If the tree had been planted by Dryads from the world of my novel and they hoped to awaken its Dryad spirit someday, they would be tending it and lending it some of their own strength to grow leaves. A tree isn't ready to awaken until about forty years, probably less for a willow since it is a fast-growing tree. I wish I could borrow some of my fictional characters' energy to help the poor tree.
On the bright side, on the other side of the front yard, we just got a new red maple (to replace the other silver maple that crashed into our house a couple years ago). As its leaves had not come out yet before the freeze, it is putting them out now.
In other news, I am extremely busy for the next two weeks singing in the chorus of Falstaff with Indianapolis Opera and soprano solos in the Monteverdi Vespers with Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra at Christ Church Cathedral. Not to mention the end of the semester for my college students.
But I'm slowly but surely editing my Dryad novelette, "For the Love of Trees", and critiquing novel chapters for TNEO (The Never Ending Odyssey - a week-long workshop for Odyssey graduates).
In another two or three weeks, things will be calmer. I hope I can make time to appreciate the spring between now and then.
If the tree had been planted by Dryads from the world of my novel and they hoped to awaken its Dryad spirit someday, they would be tending it and lending it some of their own strength to grow leaves. A tree isn't ready to awaken until about forty years, probably less for a willow since it is a fast-growing tree. I wish I could borrow some of my fictional characters' energy to help the poor tree.
On the bright side, on the other side of the front yard, we just got a new red maple (to replace the other silver maple that crashed into our house a couple years ago). As its leaves had not come out yet before the freeze, it is putting them out now.
In other news, I am extremely busy for the next two weeks singing in the chorus of Falstaff with Indianapolis Opera and soprano solos in the Monteverdi Vespers with Indianapolis Baroque Orchestra at Christ Church Cathedral. Not to mention the end of the semester for my college students.
But I'm slowly but surely editing my Dryad novelette, "For the Love of Trees", and critiquing novel chapters for TNEO (The Never Ending Odyssey - a week-long workshop for Odyssey graduates).
In another two or three weeks, things will be calmer. I hope I can make time to appreciate the spring between now and then.