August 2011 Archives

We took a walk around the neighborhood on Sunday evening, just after the worst of the winds and rain from Hurricane Irene were done. From the looks of things, the trees seem to have taken the brunt of the storm.

We are all hunkered down here in New England with our flashlights and our extra water, waiting for Hurricane Irene to pass through. The rain came down hard last night and now we're getting the wind end of things. We're surviving pretty well so far, but it sure is rough on the trees.

You might want to sit down for this....

Are you ready?

So, when I woke up the other morning, my kids tell me that something happened outside. With the tree. Apparently a couple of men came. With a long pointy stick. And they cut off everything that I've been watching, measuring, and photographing for the last six months. I can't reach a single twig now.



It seems that the men with the long pointy stick came to cut off the dead branches that were hanging down precariously from the lowest limb (I've marked those spots with black circles in the picture above). When they were all done, the kids overheard them say something like, "it's up against the house, cut those too." And they cut off the two thriving branches marked by green circles above. The one on the left was actually five or six small branches that I'd photographed repeatedly to gauge the progress of leaf growth. And the one on the right was the one long branch that had all the twigs on it that I'd been watching.

They even cut off the antlers.



I'm trying to be okay with this. I mean, it probably is way better for the tree. Those dead branches really had to go. They could have come down on someone in a storm, anytime. And I understand why they want to keep things clear of the houses. But I'm still sad about all that beautiful green gone.



June 16th and today.



And I'm sad I won't get to watch my branches continue their change through fall and back to winter. How am I going to see what happens to the leaves when they change? How am I going to see what happens with the buds? How am I going to see what is left behind when a leaf falls off? I have got to come up with a plan B.

Hey, wait a minute, I think I know what happened to the new growth on the ailanthus tree.

Lookie how the ash tree leaves point up now.

Last week, the Arnold Arboretum had a family fun day with lots of awesome activities including a scavenger hunt! Wanna look for trees with us? First, we get a "Tree Adventure" booklet with 9 clues.



Each clue describes a tree and gives us some general directions of where to find it. Once we find the tree, we hunt around it to find the stamp box. We stamp our book, turn the page, and follow the next clue. Ready?

Clue #1: Just across the road you will find our logo tree hanging out by the sunflowers.



This is a 90-foot tall dawn redwood and is represented on the Arboretum's logo.

The ailanthus tree by our parking space has had a whole month and a half to grow since I've checked in on it. Given its ability to grow in leaps and bounds, I was expecting some real changes.

The little sprouts that had just started growing across the driveway in June...

Get ready for a fun story time today! We're reading A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever by Marla Frazee. This picture book tells the story of two boys who go to nature camp together. It received a Caldecott honor in 2009. And it is pretty much the best book ever!

Since the spring, my daughter and I have enjoyed watching the development of the Japanese maple that we always pass on our walk to the library. It has always stood out because of its reddish maroon color. In early June, the leaves looked like this.

 

The sycamore trees in my neighborhood seem to be beating the summer heat by peeling off their bark!

Now that we've checked in on my ash tree and on the chestnut down the street, let's see what the kooky honey locusts have been up to. Last time, I was starting to get confused/frustrated that I had yet to see any fruit on the honey locusts. I was eager to see if they had started to develop fruit after our month-long vacation.

If you're in a school, you've probably heard of Tim and Moby. And BrainPOP, the website full of animated educational movies staring Tim and his funny robot Moby. I've been watching lots of BrainPOP movies this summer (along with my kids) to help prepare myself for the state licensing exam requiring teachers to show knowledge of all the subjects in state curriculum standards. Don't laugh, they're great movies! Anyway, I was so excited when I found a few movies about trees!



There's Tim and Moby. Tim's shirt always shows what they're discussing this time. In this movie, we learn about plant growth and, like all the movies, it is full of great information, presented in a clear way without being overwhelming or confusing, and always with a little bit of humor.



The movies always start with Tim and Moby reading a letter with a question sent in to BrainPOP. In this movie, a student asks why the apple tree in front of her school only has pink flowers on it and no apples.



Moby just happens to be up in an apple tree (dropping applies on Tim's head) and so we take a look at the development of the tree from flowering to growing fruit and spreading seeds. Tim does most of the talking, because all Moby can say is "Beep."



They talk about the purpose of the flower, the stamen and the pistil, and pollination (there's a whole 'nother movie just about that topic too!).



And they tell us how plants get nutrients. They explain the xylem and the phloem and photosynthesis. (Yeah, I could use a refresher on how that works too. Luckily, there's a movie on that one also!)



And they even show how animals can help out with seed dispersal.



I think Moby is saying, yuck!

So, bad news is, you've gotta have a subscription to see these movies. But, good news is, your school may already have one. You can ask your school librarian. You can also sign up for a free trial and watch all the movies you want for 5 days! And then tell your school librarian that your school needs a subscription. Also, there are about 20 free movies. They are awesome (but they're not about trees).

For younger kids (grades K-3), there's BrainPOP Jr., which my 4 year-old LOVES. And one of the free movies on BrainPOP Jr. is about forests. So check it out!



In BrainPOP Jr., Moby is in school with Annie. In each movie, she gets to thinking about something and poses questions to us, which are written on a little notebook next to the movie. Each question stays up there until she is done talking about it and then she poses another, related question. In this way, each movie gives younger kids a broad, but accessible introduction to the topic. 





There's even a BrainPOP in Spanish! One of their free movies is about ecosystems. I'm sure there are bound to be some trees in there! But, um, I don't know any Spanish, so you'll just have to let me know....

Soon after we returned from our vacation, I happened to walk past the horse chestnut tree that I was watching in the spring. I was in a hurry, so I wasn't looking up at the tree. I was just rushing by looking down and I saw a chestnut! It was green and still on the small side, but it was a chestnut. I didn't have my camera with me (doh!) so I had to come back a couple of days later to take a picture of the tree's progress.

Finally, I managed to take a walk down the street with the camera to check in on the girl ash tree. She is looking quite different than my boy ash these days. My boy tree has no fruit of course, but she has lots of dangling clusters of samaras.

Alright, it's been over a month since we've taken a look at the tree. Has anything changed?

Well, the leaves have continued to darken and wither. They were already starting to look older and a bit wrinkly in June. At the end of July, when we returned home from our vacation, they looked like this.