On the way to BLISTER: Morgidoo's Christmas Carol

There's always something cooking in nature, and so far she has been  happily cooperating by keeping the snow  upstairs for now.  Right.  
Guess what, I saw a snowbird today, so snow is not far behind. 
Cold snow....now don't you wish snow was warm as popcorn?



Here at Incoming Bytes, we are happy to announce that Morgidoo's Christmas Carol,  a new Christmas standard for young and old alike, is on the way to the tiny village of Blister....

Visitors arrive at Blister

A story from the ages for all ages,  Morgidoo's Christmas Carol  spans centuries and generations. The Great Silver Bell rang for generations in the Age of Light, and people sang Christmas songs and celebrated with joy, because they were always happy.

Best of all, Snow was as warm as popcorn ....until early one morning, the  ancient bell-ringer discovers the treasured silver bell is missing....and snow has turned cold. 

The village of Blister.  and  Morgidoo, the boy who searches for the Great Silver Bell both become timeless legends.......

Coming soon to YOU.....

 Morgidoo's Christmas Carol will be available as an eBook very soon......



that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Bonsai are Real trees: Grow one, Ready or Not

A lonely  12 y.o.  White Spruce Bonsai waiting to be put to bed for the winter

 
For some unknown reason, it is often thought that Bonsai are exotic, difficult, and beyond the skill set of the average gardener.

Upon close observation, nothing could be further from the truth --excellent gardeners already know what plants and trees need to survive; soil containing nutrients and moisture.  The only thing missing is the patience required,  the  will to do so --and some basic techniques that make the process not more difficult, but faster, and  more likely to succeed. The white spruce above is about 12 years old and "designed" to some degree.
If you can successfully keep a potted plant alive from year to year, you can grow a bonsai.

10 yr. old Trident Maple Bonsai  (c) r.a.kukkee

The truth is that bonsai can be exotic species, or  made exotic. With formal rules of design, the art can be both difficult and exacting at times, if one insists on starting out with all  formal bonsai rules to the letter--not a smart place to begin, since we do not become NASCAR champions, Olympians, or NHL stars instantly either.

The average gardener CAN, with reasonable effort, grow and maintain a 'bonsai' -- for a bonsai is, with all of the mystery stripped away, "a tree in a pot".  

Ready or not, (and green thumb or not)  the ancient art of Bonsai--can be dabbled in, experimented with, and enjoyed, inexpensively and successfully, --by growing your own using several  methods of propagation.
Don't be fooled by "bonsai kits" offering expensive "bonsai seeds"--for they are little but overpriced, quite ordinary seeds from mature trees.

How about just planting an ordinary tree seed yourself--or   grow a new tree from a twig.   Find a baby sapling and work with it. Use indigenous species to start, --if only because you have lots of material to work with that will  survive in the climate  in your area.

That sounds easier already, doesn't it?  Why "grow" a bonsai?  The preferable question might  be "why NOT  grow a bonsai?"    Mostly because they're beautiful and fascinating.  They also teach one patience and offer an affinity with nature. 

The red leaves displayed above are flaunted by one of my favourite trees,  a trident maple  in full  autumn colour,-- and the leaves are even a bit faded.   It is in an ordinary clay training pot.  Beautiful, isn't it?  I started this one from a mere slip of a twig with a couple of tiny leaves on it--  you got it--about 10 years ago. 

You can grow one too.   Stay tuned, we'll get to that later. This week we're putting our bonsai to 'bed' for the winter using our own method.  Over about 15 years, we've  lost fewer than  a half dozen trees and a couple of soft clay pots from freezing--an excellent record for a climate with severe weather. 

Trident maple,  White Spuce, et al,  good night--for the winter. Sweet dreams.



That's my story and I'm sticking to it. 

Let's look at Oaks!

Our favourite gardening girl, one Glory Lennon not only has some interesting maple trees, but she has some oak trees too--not big enough to hide Robin Hood and his merry men in, but  Pin oaks.   Interestingly, Glory's oak tree leaves don't seem to want to fall off in the Poconos, --get that?
 
At Incoming Bytes  we love oak trees like mad, even if the leaves on our oak trees fall off for half of the year.  We have 'Black Oak' OR Swamp White Oak  or Scub Oak  or , um..... 'Quercus something-or-other' oak. 
Well, okay we don't  know exactly  what species they are, so we're happily not pretending to know.

The point is, the leaves turned brown and fell off. These beautiful oaks get acorns like other oaks, the squirrels even steal them and save them to eat.  I've even been known to eat a few. No doubt, they're Quercus-something-or-other.    Maybe they're just neatly hybridized for our NW Ontario climate, but I've seen them along the river-banks  in Southern Manitoba too.


This is what the leaves look like, at this time of year, you'll just  have to imagine they're green and they  do look a lot like swamp White oak.  These are kind of brown and faded too, but still a handsome leaf, don't you think?  The back of the leaf is an even  lighter tan.

 Oak leaf (faded)

If you think the end of the leaf was broken off, look again, here are two more exactly the same, they are flat on the end, unlike some other oaks:

A twin pair of Oak leaves

Is that flat end a detail of hybridization and adaptation to the severe cold here?  No matter what they are, rightly or wrongly,  the local name for these is scrub oak, or  Black Oak.  When wet, the trees are almost black as Ebony.  Ebony the pup, that is.

Gnarly  Oak Twigs

  But how about that gnarly bark and twigs?  The bark is quite unusual. Here's another photo of it.

Amazing  Oak bark

The two oaks we have are about 15 years old and were very slow to start and are slow-growing. With an extremely deep tap root, once they establish themselves, they're difficult  to move without chopping off the tap root. They can get quite big when very old. They don't seem to be good candidates for indigenous-species bonsai either because of the tap root and slow growth pattern. We'll get to bonsai later though.

Here's what a twinned  15 year old  Oak looks like.  It is quite elegant bare, but stunning in full leaf.  The pup, Ebony, is jet black, making the oak bark look lighter gray  even though it is quite dark-coloured.  The puppy,  --except for the white spots,  is so black it's even difficult to take a picture of her in full sunlight, but it's dull and overcast in this picture. She's a real poser too. Notice her two ears are stuck up like the twin trunks?

Here's what the trunk looks like close up:

As you can see, several types of mosses love the thick, rough bark. Even though this bark looks quite beaten up and stressed by life, the tree is absolutely healthy and normal.  Tough stuff !

 If anyone really knows for sure what species this oak is, please tell us.
  
Why?.......um.....We may be moderately Acer-savvy,  but  we're also definitely  'Quercus-challenged'. 


That's my story and I'm sticking to it.