Free book Friday…

Bracey says:

As a youngster, I lived in beautiful San Diego.  A friend had a large avocado tree that we loved to climb.  One day, she pushed my foot off a branch and down I went, falling out of the tree.  Fortunately nothing was broken but I avoided climbing that tree after that.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 6:44 am.

Ellen B. says:

The first I remember is my grandmother’s crape myrtle.  It had pink flowers but I was too young to appreciate the beautiful bark.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 6:46 am.

Helen Bonnett says:

We (my sister, cousin, and I) used to climb a live oak on the edge of our property. There was a large branch parallel to the ground (it seemed really high but was probably only 8’ off the ground). We would sit there for hours. It was our boat, car, airplane, etc. My kids later climbed the fruitless mulberries in our back yard. My two year old (the youngest) would go get a bucket so he could climb up too. I told him he had to wait until he could do it on his own and not to use the bucket. The next day he climbed w/o the bucket. Trees are great!

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 6:51 am.

Barbara Wallace says:

When I was growing up our family lived on a street in Altadena that was lined with fabulous old deodar trees. In fact every year at Christmas time they were decorated with lights and hundreds of cars drove through them in what was called Christmas Tree Lane. Being a tomboy I had to climb those trees. I remember how nicely spaced the branches were to make for easy climbing so I would go higher and higher. I’d see my mother out in the yard and call out to her to look at how high I’d gotten. Later in life she told me as I said “look higher”, that all she could do was look up, then turn around and go back into the house as it freaked her out to think I cold fall at any second-fortunately I never did. Would I climb those trees today? Not on your life!

The tree book sounds fabulous!

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 6:52 am.

Lise says:

My grandmother was born in the Ukraine and raised my mother in Brooklyn. When we moved to California, she came to live with us. Every time someone took a photo of her, she stood by a tree - the grapefruit tree, the apricot tree, the Ponderosa lemon tree. For her, and for us, those trees symbolized California, sun, warmth, abundance, nature and beauty. Those are my favorite photographs of my grandmother - next to a tree.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:05 am.

Dorina says:

As kids growing up in NYC, our favorite tree was the “Ladybug Tree.”  At least, that’s what we called it.  It had big heart-shaped leaves.  We could always be sure to find enough ladybugs among them to satisfy our desire to have ladybugs crawl up onto our hands, then watch them fly away.  Good memories!

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:06 am.

Guida Quon says:

Not a single tree but the woods I played in which were behind my aunt and uncle’s house in Rittman, Ohio….....I played in the shadows, looked for animal friends, made houses with their leaves, had family hot dog roasts, played in the stream running through the trees, day after day after day the trees of the woods were my cousins and my playground. Those are the trees I remember most. Thanks Cindy for bringing this to my mind today. Always pleasant memories.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:13 am.

lynne says:

My first tree experience was rescuiing a “stick” in a pot.  I was seven and spotted it in a pile of roadside garbage.  I took it home and loved it back to life.  It was a Norfolk Island Pine that survived until I went to college.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:23 am.

Cristina says:

My son when he was just a rambunctious tot for some reason couldn’t say walnut tree clearly.  It always came out as sounding like vomit tree. So everyday he went out to do some serious vomit tree climbing and I always had to giggle just a little.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:30 am.

Jeanne Rubin says:

My first beloved tree was one on our property in Poland, Ohio.  I climbed it one day and found a tree-house (really just a platform) in the upper branches.  I spent many happy hours there reading, day-dreaming, watching birds and just enjoying being way up in a tree.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:56 am.

Lynn S says:

There was a powerful hurricane (Agnes, I think) that uprooted huge trees in the woods behind our house when I was kid.  My brothers and I sent many hours climbing the intricate root structures for years.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 7:58 am.

Victoria says:

My first experience with a tree was when I was 8 and my brother 5. Down by the railroad tracks was a stand of tall eucalyptus tree, just waiting for us to clmb them.  So we did, but it was not as easy to get down, so we ended up sliding down the tilting trunks, catching our clothing along the way and leaving traces of ourselves for later climbs!  Oh how they smelled so good though.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:03 am.

Maryann says:

When about 6 we were visiting my cousins in Buffalo, All the kids went down the street to play and on the way home a big dog started chasing us. The older kids were too far ahead to see and I was so scared I climbed up a tree. He sat there growling and barking at me for what seemed like forever till one of my older cousins came back and rescued me!

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:10 am.

Regina says:

My memories fall to the yummy peach tree we had in our backyard when I was young. There were always a ton of them to eat, juice running down our arms, and I can’t forget all of the bees that seemed to swam around it too.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:11 am.

Marla says:

My first thoughts about trees were in my grandparents backyard in Hollywood, Illinois.  Their house was built across the street from a forest preserve and so their acre lot had HUGE trees in the back portion of the lot.  Their trunks were big enough to hide behind playing hide and seek with my brothers.  The envied spot was in the hammock tied between two of the five of them.  They looked like the giant redwoods do to me today as I was only 5 back then!

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:23 am.

Linda Mendelssohn says:

Growing up in Whittier, we had a very large eucalyptus tree in the back yard.  My dad built a bench around the trunk where we could sit in the shade.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:48 am.

Marj Myers says:

When I was in the first grade, we lived down a long road lined with crab apple trees.  My parents couldn’t see me from the house but I used to climb one of those trees and wait for the school bus to go by then I would go back to the house and say I missed the bus. Was more fun to stay home and play than go to school back in those days.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:52 am.

Margie says:

Growing up in Minnetonka, Minnesota, we had a small crab apple tree in our front yard. The apples were the size of golf balls. Whenever my brothers or I mowed our front lawn, crab apples would get caught in the blade and shoot out the back like a bullet. We never made crab apple jelly but I remember having crab apple fights in the street.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:57 am.

kelli price says:

Picking an apple from my grandmothers tree, taking a big bite,and finding that my two bottom teeth had remained in the apple. I was so upset that I pulled the teeth from the apple, threw them at the trunk of the tree, and stomped off to inform my mother and grandmother about my outrage. I will never forget the look of, to a small girl, horror on my mother’s face. She quickly ran out to the tree and searched frantically for her first child’s first lost teeth.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:57 am.

Donna C says:

I think I was just barely one when I crawled over to the neighbours and started eating the plums that had fallen to the ground from their My mother found me, purple splotches everywhere with a tummy full of plums and was not very pleased at all!

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 9:09 am.

Ellie says:

I have always been a tomboy and loved to sit in trees.  When I was very young, we had a cedar tree in our front yard.  I learned I could climb the fence, stand on the fence post and grab the first limb.  I sat up there for hours at a time and watched the world go by.  The boys in town had a tree house and if they weren’t in it I was.  After my family was grown I began to hunt and found I could watch the trails better from a tree and built a small seat and surrounding cover and I used that for many years.  Would still be there if physically able.  Trees are special in my life and always have been.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 9:15 am.

Cheryl Metheny says:

I can’t even tell you the name of the tree, but it had a beautiful trunk. My brother had carved a girls initials in it for the world to see.  I (of course) had to copy him in everything, so I started my own row of names through the years.  Going to my 40th reunion last year, a classmate asked me if we still had that tree.  My father passed away last year and after 55 years, we won’t have that tree to stir up lost loves.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 10:58 am.

Susan says:

My brother and I surely learned to climb in the mimosa tree next to the carport. It was beautiful and readily climbed, with comfortable crotches for sitting and reading, or we could easily continue on up and observe the neighborhood from the roof of the carport.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 11:20 am.

Jean says:

When I was 10 I grew silkworms and went to my Mom’s friend’s house to pick mulberry leaves to feed them. Besides leaves I also ate a lot of mulberries!

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 11:39 am.

Darla says:

I would LOVE this book for my daughter who is fascinated by everything in nature…especially trees!  Thanks for the introduction to all of these books - they all have been fascinating!
Darla

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 12:46 pm.

Lynne says:

Well, for some reason my comment didn’t ‘take’ so am trying again. Hope it doesn’t come up twice.

In front of our house in Brooklyn, we had a very old and large Maple tree—the whole street was lined with them and when the snow fell, it looked like a cathedral when you stood at one end of the block and looked at the far end.

I had an intimate relationship with that 70’ tree as long as I was tall enough to hoist myself up onto the lowest branch. But that came to an abrupt end when, one day, leaning my hand against Madame Maple, I suddenly realized my body had become a new home for the ants. Crawling up my arm, onto MY trunk, in my hair. Learned two things that day: how to do the Ant Dance and never, ever to lean against that tree again!.

PS to Dorina: That “Ladybug Tree” was probably a Ginko. They are all over Brooklyn, and the leaves appear on the cover of this Friday’s book.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 1:13 pm.

Ingrid says:

My favorite tree memory is actually two rows of California peppers that lined an old road.  I would ride my bike under the connecting canopies early in the morning and with the heavy fog I always felt like I was in a dream.  I planted a couple at my current home so I could walk between them and remember those magic mornings.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 1:51 pm.

jim hernandez says:

i can vividly recall my first tree that i climbed.
1 was twelve years old and we had just moved into
tustin from irvine(1956). myself and two new friends had been eyeing this loquat tree that was
loaded with juicy fruits. so i was chosen to climb
this tree and about 8 feet the branch i was clinging to, broke, and the next thing i rembered,
my friend was try to revieve me. i got the wind
knocked out of me. my friend were laughing at/with
me.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 2:25 pm.

Janet Germane says:

Dear Cindy,

My first experience was two-fold. In my home town, in Western Montana, we had the pines and some deciduous trees as well, but the library books at school often showed, as the symbol of the publishing house, a tree with the elaborate branching habit , such as that of the oaks of California. But they were not identified as real and seemed to me a fairy tale kind of tree, quite wondrous to an eight year old; a totally different kind of tree. When I now occasionally see that publisher’s symbol, I feel again the imagination of my childhood. I love trees.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 2:43 pm.

Ron, the Plant Man says:

Boy, reading all the above comments really brought back a lot of tree experiences I’ve had throughout my lifetime…talk about a trip down memory lane!  But it was a good one.  Thank you everyone for allowing me to read your memories of trees!

My first memory of a tree was when I was very young and living in a very small town in South Eastern Idaho.  Now if you have ever been in that part of the country, all the towns are small, but was a great place to grow up.  In our front yard was a fairly young Elm tree.  My guess is that it was a Siberian Elm, as that was the predominant species that grew there.  I was only about 4 or 5 but I had a long Bamboo pole that was probably supposed to be a fishing pole, but I used to use it to climb into the tree.  I’d prop the pole against one of the lower branches and shimmy up the pole to the first branch and then go higher from there.  Used to spend hours up in the tree watching cars and people go by and they never knew I was watching them!  Sometimes my Mother would come to the door and call me, but she couldn’t see me and if I didn’t answer, she would go out back and call me.  When I got ready, I’d come down and go in the house and she would ask where I had been and I’d tell her I was wandering around about a block away and couldn’t hear her when she called…naughty me!

As I grew older, I learned where all the fruit trees were in the town were, and used to sneak into the owners yards and help myself to plums, peaches, pears, and my favorite, apples while they were still green!  I had an old salt shaker that I kept filled with salt and a little bit of baking soda that I would sprinkle on them when I would eat them.  The baking soda would make the juice foam up my mouth as I ate them.  Soooooo Good!

Thank you Lise for you comment about your Grandmother being photographed always by a tree.  It reminded me of my Mother who died just before I turned 9.  My favorite photograph of her was where she was standing beside a small apple tree in out back yard.  I don’t have the photograph anymore but I can see it vividly in my mind when I think about her.  I can still remember the apple variety…it was called “Yellow Transparent”, and produced really good apples, both when they were green and when they were ripe!

Thanks Cindy, for a great memory day!!!

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 4:10 pm.

Nancy Cleaver says:

My first real memories of trees were as a very young child.  Being the child of working parents, I was lucky enough to be cared for by my “grammy”, and my “grampy”.  They had a lovely property that housed a garden and a small apple orchard.  Their lawn swing was based in the orchard, and I spent many happy days playing, reading, and resting there.  It was a wonderful, comforting time that I will never forget!  Thank you for the opportunity to recall such happy times.

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 5:54 pm.

hotsabi says:

My first tree experience was also my first taste of ants,
the tree, which may have been a plum of some sort was loaded with these tasy critters !
Well Mom did not take that very well and took me to the emergency room.
I would guess that I was 6 or 7 and back in those days Doctors had time to “DISCUS”  NOT EATING FIRE ANTS.
Without aresting mom and calling CPS.

And now I only eat Organic bugs.
Ahhh the good ol’days
lol

Posted on September 16, 2011 at 8:31 pm.

Carol says:

I will never forget the cherry tree we had in our back yard in Colorado Springs. I was four years old, and could never wait until the cherries were ripe, so reaching to the very lowest branches, I plucked off green cherries and ate them (stomach ache). One day I heard a loud noise on the roof, which was a wood pecker, my dad said, and from that time on, whenever the wood pecker was around, I had to stay inside (was afraid of being pecked on the head). To this day, my favorite fruit are cherries.
I loved reading all the wonderful tree stories!

Posted on September 17, 2011 at 7:03 am.

Rachel says:

My maternal grandparents lived in the same house for 40 years. Mattie Belle, my grandmother, had a green thumb for flowers - roses, iris (she called them flags) and especially lilies-of-the-valley (my favorite). My grandfather, William Ernest, kept the grass, trees and hedges trimmed to frame his wife’s beautiful flower gardens. His only stray from perfection was a wonderful homemade swing in a large old apple tree. That apple tree and that swing were where Mattie Belle taught me to recite the 23rd Psalm. Now, many years later I still remember it and when I see an apple tree I am reminded of the beauty, strength and lessons that comes from age - both trees and grandparents.

Posted on September 18, 2011 at 8:28 pm.

Christine Weber says:

As a small girl, my friend and I would climb her orange tree and pick the biggest ones we could grab.  Still in the tree, we would peel its thick skin, smell it’s fragrance, see the spray of it’s juice and finally taste it’s sweetness.  It was just like the TV commercial!

Posted on September 19, 2011 at 6:00 pm.