Symphony of Science

I don't know why I never heard of these until last night (thank you, Facebook) but they are utterly wonderful--the more so if you know what they are talking about, at least a little and who they are. Fabulous. Quantum physics, the history of the human species and brain science, set to music. Amazing. http://symphonyofscience.com/videos.html

Taking Root, the Vision of Wangari Maathai

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5GX6JktJZg

Tree People

Here we are, just like that in 2012.  I am behind on this blog because of many things (read holidays, getting a cold from hell, family and friends), but there has been a lot “cooking”.  One of my main intentions for this year is to plant trees, conserve trees, learn about trees, talk about trees and to document heritage trees. I got a book I wanted for Christmas: Like A Tree by Jean Shinoda Bolen. http://www.jeanbolen.com/ Here is a quote from the first page.

“The seed idea for this book began with the observation that there are “tree
people”, and that I am one of them. A tree person has positive feelings for
individual trees and an appreciation of trees . . . A tree person may have
been a child who kept treasures in a tree, or had a sanctuary in one, or
climbed up to see the wider worlds, a child for whom trees were places of
imaginative play and retreat . . .  A tree person met up with Nature in
childhood or as an adult, and like the four-footed ones who retreat to lick
their wounds, may still heal emotional hurts by going to where trees are."

Knowing something is good. Naming it gives it power. I am a tree person. I had so many experiences like the Bolen's story:

“A huge Monterey pine (once) stood in front of the house that is now my home
. . .  It never occurred to me that by a vote of a homeowners association
this beautiful tree that was there before any houses went up and was in its
prime could be cut down because a neighbor wanted it down and could mobilize
the necessary votes. In trying to save my tree, I was in many conversations
and meetings, and found that there is a world of difference between tree
people and "not tree people.”

“I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree.”
Joyce Kilmer

“You see one tree, you¹ve seen them all.”
Attributed to Ronald Reagan

“It's the little things citizens do. That's what will make the difference. My little thing is planting trees." Wangari Maathai

More on Wangari next time.

Deep Time

Here's what boggles my mind. I am made more tender toward the living world, more in awe, more in astonishment of its creation and more aware of a Divine Matrix or God or Goddess or whatever you want to call it...by my own consideration of "deep time".

And yet... to quote an article on Deep time (the concept that the Geologic time scale is vast because the Earth is very old):

"Following the Protestant Reformation, the Genesis creation stories were interpreted as holding that the Earth has existed for only a few thousand years. Proponents of scientific theories which contradicted scriptural interpretations could not only lose their academic appointments but were legally answerable to charges of heresy and blasphemy, charges which, even as late as the 18th century in Great Britain, sometimes resulted in a death sentence."

 I am glad I don't live in that time (do I?---sometimes I wonder) and I invite you to "grow giddy by looking so far into the abyss of time." (quoted from mathematician John Playfair  in 1788).

So, back to Oaks. This gives a whole new meaning to the word "primordial". 

Start with the age of the Earth (4.54 billion years, more or less).

Science indicates that something, something like an algal scum formed on land 1,200 million years ago. That's a lot of time with no life. But thus began the The Kingdom of Plantae.

Around 450 million years ago, the first land plants appeared. 30 million years later, plants developed roots, leaves seeds and secondary wood. That was when forests first began to appear.  I am throwing the word "million" around here. I don't know if you can take it in. I can't, not really. That's why, when we lose a species, or the structure that can support life it is such a big loss. It takes millions of years to evolve.

Oaks live side by side with pines and firs but they are a younger branch of the tree of life. The gymnosperms, the conifers--pines and firs-- are much older, arising around the Carboniferous, about 300 million years ago.

Then at oh, about around 245–202 million years ago, the ancestors of flowering plants diverged from gymnosperms, and the first flowering plants known to exist are from 140 million years ago.

Then here is another amazing thing. They diversified. That gave them the evolutionary advantage.   The Division or Phylum Angiosperms (flowering plants) replaced conifers as the dominant trees only around 60–100 million years ago. Only. Mere youngsters. Then they started to further complicate things, developing more specialized plant parts, pollen, leaves and more orderly arrangements of their roots, stems and leaves. Over a few more million years, the Oak would evelove into 2 clades or divisions called Eudicots  and then the Rosids before coming to its first ranked division, the Order: Fagales.

This group includes the Birch family, Betulaceae, the walnut family Juglandaceae, and many others, including the beech family, Fagaceae. From there, it is further subdivided down into the Genus Quercus. All the gloroius oaks of the world are in this genus and they are found in many states and may countries.

Of special note are Quercus robur (Pedunculate or common oak) and Quercus petraea (Sessile oak).  These are the oaks that grew all over Europe, and which inspired the druid Oak Knowers. More later!

Kingdom: Plantae; Phylum: Angiosperms (flowering plants); Eudicots; Rosids
Order: Fagales Family: Fagaceae Genus: Quercus Section: Quercus Species: Q. garryana

In the Presence of Elders

On Saturday, I felt overwhelmed and overworked. I knew what I had to do. I had to go visit the oaks.  Within minutes of entering the grove, I was calmed. Was this because I was in the presence of elders? Using the table below, I figure the Garry Oaks at American Camp Historical National Park to be about... 200-300 years old. I am fresh enough from visting my friend near White Salmon, where the poison oak understory is abundant, to be very grateful for an oak savannah that allows relaxed meandering, with grasses--mostly Ryegrass (Elymus glaucus) and Yorkshire fog (Holcus lanatus)--and mossy rocky knolls.

Circumference (inches)	Diameter (inches)	Conservative Age (years)	Average Age (years)
37.7	12	84	88
75.4	24	168	175
113.1	36	252	262
150.8	48	336	350
188.5	60	420	438
226.2	72	502	525

Source: http://www.savehelvetia.org/ourcase/white_oak.php

                                                                     
Meanwhile, the air was alive with robins. I did a little research on the lifespan of robins and while the information is surprisingly little, it seems they live a short life, with the oldest being about 8.5 years (in captivity).

  (Click here for source of photo.)

So, there we were, us and a whole lot more than my eye could see or brain comprehend, alive on this planet (estimated age: 4.54 billion years old). One rooted in the earth, one walking, one flying--on one day in December in 2011. That  small, huge fact changed my mood.

Uncage the Soul

This time-lapse video is so wonderful I just had to share it now, while I am off becoming an Oak Knower. Let it load for a good several minutes before watching. The name of their company is Uncage the Soul. Sometimes everything that needs to be said is in the title. What is the right way of seeing things? Perhaps this way is closer to the real way of things than our slow and attention-wandering, work-focused minds. Click here to see.

On Becoming An Oak Knower

I recently visited a friend outside of White Salmon.  As always, the walk into her grove of Oregon White Oaks was an excursion into an enchanted world.  I have always loved the space and “negative space” (Negative space, in art, is the space around and between the subject(s) of an image.) of winter trees. Combine that with lichen, moss and a few lingering golden leaves in the long shafts of a winter sun and you have … magic.

So let’s start with that. Magic, that is.  And maybe the nature of the Divine, which preceded and followed the walk in the Oak Grove.  

Source of image and quotes below: blogspot.com/2009/12/holy-oak-tree-religion.html

Oak Knower: “In Gaelic, “Druidh” is the compound of *dru + *uid = oak-knower. In the ancient Celtic society Druid was a name bestowed on a seer or visionary who possessed ‘oak knowledge.’

The Goddess: The pre-Christian world was the world of Celts, who worshiped nature. To the Celtic outlook, the land was the main goddess, the rivers were her helpers and they enriched the earth. Celts used to live in forests, where they were close to the nature and could learn the language of trees and wisdom of animals. With the appearance of Christianity ancient Celts didn’t disturb their close ties with nature; they connected their love to nature with the main principles of Christianity. Celtic monks lived in deep forests and wrote their religious works for the gifts of nature. The most important thing was to understand the divine origin of all things and god’s existence in nature. Celts saw life as a constantly changing circulation of life and death. Everything moved in a spiral and nature’s observation gave a possibility to find mechanism of development of the world.”

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When I got home to my own Oak Grove, I resolved to become an Oak Knower.  Yes, the tree of the San Juan Islands that I love best is the same Quercus garryana—the Garry Oak is the same as the Oregon White Oak.  The next few entries will explore the world of this sacred and amazing tree.