A Sentiment

God knew what He was doing when He sent a gentle breeze and brought a lovely butterfly to set my heart at ease. The happiness of your friendship and the gentleness of your words have touched my life in special ways and now I feel assured. Thank you for your loyalty and for reading everyday. I only hope you find things to make a happy day.

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Earth Day and Arbor Day 2009

Here is Joe supervising the planting of an Autumn Blaze Maple at our house a couple of years ago. I have heard people say, "Why plant a young tree at your age...you won't live to see it grow?" What a silly statement....we will be here as long as we are able... watching it start out. Then this beauty will be here for generations to enjoy. We have already had a hummingbird nest in it and that brought us so much pleasure. It is so pretty in the fall and is growing right before our old eyes.
Planting a tree in Iraq on Arbor Day. What a great picture of our boys remembering Arbor Days, when they were home.

This is a special week in nature. Years ago, when I was in kindergarten...We were given tiny trees to take home on Arbor Day... to plant in our yards .We were given little maple trees in our class. My Dad had time before going to his night job...so we planted the tree right away. It was planted on the tree bank in front of our rental house. Just a sprig...inches tall with a little wire fence around it.We moved a few years later and the tree was forgotten. Later, as an adult, I was taking a drive in my old hometown and went by the house. The little maple tree was getting so much bigger. After that we drove by every year to see this tree in the fall. It turned out to be a beautiful, bright, red,orange maple tree. Sadly the tree was removed years later. I was really saddened by this. It was my tree from the age of 5.


Later on, in 1976, we moved to Hampshire, Illinois. Our house was on a normal sized city lot. There were 29 trees on the lot. Most of them were Chinese Elms. We did some remodeling and put a new garage and deck on this house...so some of the trees had to be removed. Our favorite trees were along the back of the property. White pines...beautiful and big. A living fence, so to speak. My elderly neighbor was born in the house behind us and she told about the children that lived in our house...it was Arbor Day and the kids brought those tiny white pine sprigs home and planted them. They really grew fast and made the yard so pretty and a favorite spot for birds to live. At that time they gave trees out in all the stores in our town and of course in the schools.


Now, I can't seem to find those tiny free trees. I suppose some are given away, but they are not as plentiful as in the old days.


This year hubby and I are going to observe the week, by having a picnic at the Jarrett Prairie Center. I may do some cleaning up and planting in our own yard. I hope the weather cooperates, so it can be observed all over our town. There are special events going on everywhere in towns around us. If we all do a little something for our natural world... on these days and then continue doing it year round...it can make a big difference in how our neighborhoods look. If you just stop throwing that gum wrapper out the car window....you are doing something.


The picture above came from the internet. It shows a couple of soldiers in Iraq in 2005. In a comment one of them said, "Even though I'm here in Iraq....I won't miss celebrating Arbor Day." Can you imagine?

Balisha


2 comments:

Elenka said...

Enjoy Arbor Day ! Trees grow so fast, we have planted so many seedling trees over the years, and now they smile down on us...happy, healthy big trees. Nice!

Jennifer AKA keewee said...

Anytime is a good time to plant trees. Thank you for sharing.