Tuesday, October 16, 2018

Birch

We have quite a few birch trees around us. In fact, our property is called les bouleaux (the birches). The woods around us abound in birches and their close relatives les aulnes (alders) and les charmes (hornbeams). Birches are among the first trees to populate an open space. Many of the abandoned vineyard plots and fields around us are home to the young trees.

I remember birches from where I grew up in upstate New York, and reading Robert Frost's poem "Birches" (among others) in school.

The stream bed that runs roughly parallel to our road on the south side is called la rouere de l'aulne (the alder stream). I think that the word rouere is a more or less local word for "stream." When we get firewood each year, a good part of it is made up of charme.

Today is this blog's thirteenth anniversary. It's hard to remember when I didn't do this.

11 comments:

  1. And thank you for blogging - I think connections among people living in different places is really important to help stitch our world together.

    ReplyDelete
  2. "It's hard to remember when I didn't do this." I'm sure glad you do. Between you and Ken, I get a little taste of France every morning. It's a nice way to start my day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, 13 Years already! I remember when you blogged everyday for a year the first time. I really enjoy your and Ken's blogs with my morning coffee. Merci bien!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yes, thank you for my little touch of France in the morning!
    I've just been reading about chaga, an intriguing parasitic fungus which grows primarily on birch and supposedly cures just about everything that ails us. Very popular at the moment and pricey too.
    Jocelyn

    ReplyDelete
  5. congratulations! what have you learned in your 13 years of blogging?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Yes, thanks, Walt and I do hope many years will follow. It's a pleasure every day to read your and Ken's blogs, even if we live on the other side of our world. You feel connected...!

    ReplyDelete
  7. chm, lol!

    mitch, no one is more surprised than I am.

    sillygirl, the internet has really changed things in our lifetimes.

    diane, thanks!

    evelyn, it's weird, but it's a strange feeling not to want to "miss" a day. Especially since I don't really have anything to say!

    jocelyn, thanks for the kind words. I've not heard of chaga, so I plan to look it up!

    anne marie, I've learned that if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any farther than my own back yard, because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with. That, and that love means never having to say you're sorry. ;)

    ReplyDelete

Tell me what you think!