"When Spring unfolds the beechen leaf"

[Annalaliath]

I will be spending my spring hoping that we get rain and smelling the Russian Olive trees bloom. I will also be in school and I hope to be outside a lot. It is already getting hot out here. But Tolkien related things putting on my Galdriel dress, going to Daniel Fernandez park and standing by the water fountain I will ask ," Will you look into the Mirror..."

[Birdland]

Grasshoppers? Eeeww! (Ghastly Neekerbreekers!)

I like Grasshoppers. And Katy-Dids, and Praying Mantis. Acutally, I like funny bugs, period. I always thought the Good Professor was much too hard on bugs, (and fauna in general, actually.)

Anyhow, I’m still a kid/teenager, so I may yet have my gardening times.

Hmmmmmm. Ladies; methinks Galadriel - when she says "gardening times" - is actually saying "when I get OLD!

Hmmmph! Whipper-Snapper...

[mark12_30]

Birdie darling, I will happily keep all my bees, wasps, hornets, and Bumblebees (yes, even those big big "carpenter" bumblebees.) Oh, and Ladybugs.

But if you would care to rent a large conveyance and drive over here, I will cheerfully allow you-- Nay! Encourage vehemently!-- to play your pied piper pipe and lure ALL those japanese beet;es, katydids, grashoppers, and Big Old Black Beetle Thingys into your lovely Pied Piper Van and take them all away.

Please?

[Liriodendron]

I remember when I took my daughter for an MRI last year. She let out a blood curdling scream when the "snippy" technician tried to get the needle in. Then she blubbered and cried (She was 17! ) so hard, that the snippy tech lady felt pretty bad. It was one of those priceless moments where I got a little revenge! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img] (then I got the bill! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] )
Anyway, Japanese beetles and grasshoppers are surely from Mordor! My gardens are so lovely right now, they could grace the front and back of Bag End! [img]smilies/redface.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] Peonies coming soon!

[ May 15, 2003: Message edited by: Liriodendron ]

[Samwise]

I remember when I took my daughter for an MRI last year. She let out a blood curdling scream when the "snippy" technician tried to get the needle in. Then she blubbered and cried (She was 17! )

Oh, dear.... [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] I had an MRI yesterday for the first time in about 21 years. As many needles as I've had stuck into me, I still hyperventilate. [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] What I could never stand was that the technicians would always say, "Now, you're just going to feel a little pinch." and looking back I think, "HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT I'M GOING TO FEEL!?!?!?" Thank the Lord, the technician yesterday was wonderful. Kept telling me I had "good veins" and to "just think of something else...." I'm 32 and I still don't like needles. [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

On a gardening note, I went to water this afternoon, and there are little sproutlets where I planted my Moonflowers and Morning glories!!!! WHOOHOOOOOOO!!! [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[Gandalf_theGrey]

This would have been most appropriate yesterday, for it happened a year ago then. Of course, yesterday I was out walking yet another nature trail and so was not around to tell the tale!

Microburst Lightning Survival

5/14/02
5:00 p.m. by the Shire clocks

The violet-ash cloud thundered a warning growl, lowering like a loping warg. I picked my way through muddy clumps of grass and close strands of horsetail weeds to see the tree again, determined not to give up this close to my goal after coming so far. For the Old Forest hid within itself a tree so wonderous as to rival Telperion and Laurelin! (So said Old Tom.) [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

The tree was unrecognizeable at first. In April, it was covered all over with multi-tiered flowers of white, pink, and fuchsia. Now, all the bloom was gone. Only tattered green remained. Leaves weaved distress signals in the wind.

Glancing upwards from the curving river Withywindle towards churning, curling clouds, I turned around and slipped into a runner's stance. The first drops of rain fell like practice drumbeats. The wind drew in its breath before its forceful song of storm. I broke into a full run when I saw the violet-ash cloud sprout tiny funnels. In among scattered trees, I tried persuading myself that if only I made it to the field, the trees I left behind would make a much more attractive target than I would.

Entering the field, I slowed down to save my strength for the roughly two-mile trek separating me from shelter. Recognized the wind's song as it deepened and strengthened into an eerie voice I'd heard before at the fringes of tornados. Wondered if I'd know enough to lie down in time as a survival move, or whether I'd stoically keep going, overlong.

The rain thickened, slanted horizontally, coated me into its watercolor world, blended me into its greyness.

There was no hiding from the cracking electrical SNAP !!! I jumped. Looked directly overhead as lightning exploded, close. Lightning and thunder together all rolled into one. There was no counting after the thunder "one one hundred, two one hundred, three one hundred" to determine how far away the lightning was ... the lightning, simply, immediately, WAS !!!

I ran again, until I reached what I told myself was the safety of the main gravel trail for Ira Road. It was raining back in the field, but not on the trail. The trail, in fact, was bone dry. This four-way crossroads was a boundary. In one direction, the official trail perpendicularly met the little dirt trail I had taken. Another direction offered an official trail leading to Hale Farm. There was also an actual road with houses.

An intriguing house sat at the crossroads, with several birdfeeders and a sign with big letters: "PRIVATE PROPERTY -- PLEASE RESPECT." For a moment, I envisioned myself pounding on the door asking permission to be let in for a while in case the storm chased me in from the field. Embarrassed that I might not be believed, I decided instead to take the trail back and hope for the best.

A couple of men passed by, their clothes dry. I was sopping wet. I blurted out brief words about the storm. They listened, humored me with polite smiles, moved on. But how could they not believe this old Stormcrow? What ... did they think that I'd doused myself with a bucket of water?

Alone again, the storm caught up with me, as if it had waited until the skeptical people I'd warned had gone, as if it were in its own way laughing. I continued my struggling journey at a scrabbling run on and off, thoroughly enmeshed in a fowler's snare of wind and rain.

Having outpaced the lightning in the field, another eerie scene of danger awaited my arrival upon its stage. The boardwalk over
the beaver marsh. It was a wooden bridge completely exposed out in the middle of a pond. A pond that lightning would no doubt find especially attractive. The bridge was beaten slippery by slapping sideways rain
propelled by tornadic wind. Tree branches seethed lashing on the high horizon, like
sea-green serpents trying to escape being strangled by grey water. Stillness was drowning in motion. "Even if I cling to one of the wooden posts, if a funnel cloud comes down, I'll be blown into the pond." So I just crossed the bridge, step by step. Step, my heart is still beating. Step, my lungs have taken another breath.

Once more on the firmer footing of gravel, tall pine trees to the side of me offered what wall they could muster against the downpour. Finally I made it to a beckoning door. Just as I'd gotten inside, lumps of hail began pelting the world outside. And adventure contentedly buffered itself into the memory of adventure.

Gandalf the Grey

[ May 15, 2003: Message edited by: Gandalf_theGrey ]

[GaladrieloftheOlden]

Always happens like that, doesn't it? [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
I had an MRI thingy too. This just seems to be a Barrow Downs thing to do in the Spring... [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

Hmmmmmm. Ladies; methinks Galadriel - when she says "gardening times" - is actually saying "when I get OLD!
Hmmmph! Whipper-Snapper...

Not really. I meant when I get older [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]
As in, about 5 years older. And I merely meant I dislike gardening because somehow, when I get outside to try it, I end up raking leaves [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

~Menelien

Edit: Wow, overuse of smilies here [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[ May 15, 2003: Message edited by: GaladrieloftheOlden ]

[mark12_30]

Swerving momentarily off-topic: CHECK OUT THE LUNAR ECLIPSE! (As in, right now.) Tolkien would love it. Elves would sing about it.

[Samwise]

Swerving momentarily off-topic: CHECK OUT THE LUNAR ECLIPSE!

*After coming in from outside*

OOOH. Very cool! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img]

[Raefindel]

Yikes, Gandalf! That sounds positively frightful!

I intended to check out the eclipse, but I doubt the weather will allow a glimpse, Helen. Of course, no self-respecting Elf would pass up the opportunity if it presents itself.

[Gandalf_theGrey]

* Enters cheerily enough with mud on his boots and the bottom fringes of his robes, and a small stray down-feather in his flowing beard from tramping around Magee Marsh and Sheldon Lake all day. Smiles a "hallo" to all conversationalists here in general, and to Raefindel in particular. *

Good greetings, Raefindel:

Verily, frightful at the time, but exhilarating to look back on! [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] Meanwhile, so many other spring journeys have inspired joy, wonderment, and awe ... only I hesitate to share them here, having not yet figured out how to phrase them in the commonly accepted speech of Middle Earth.

As for you, were you fortunate enough to see the lunar eclipse? Too cloudy where I was. But I'm already looking forward to the Perseid Meteor Shower in August.

Meanwhile, here's hoping you're enjoying the Midgewater Marshes as much as I'm enjoying such marshland as Magee/Crane Creek, Ira Rd., and the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge (affectionately called the Alabama Swamps by the locals and rumored to contain quicksand) when I travel farther afield. What do you see, or what sorts of adventures befall you, when you explore the Midgewater Marshes? (Or should my first question be, do you live 200 miles away from the marshes, or are you laying claim to 200 miles worth of marshland as your home?)

Gandalf the Grey

[ May 17, 2003: Message edited by: Gandalf_theGrey ]

[Raefindel]

Gandalf, I'm "Walking to Rivendell" with the Eowyn Challange and have walked 200 miles which is the distance from Bagshot Row to the Midgewater Marshes.

My spring adventures include another visit from Mark 12:30, Helen, next week. We will be going to Caradhras (Mt Rainier) to do some hiking, and perhaps some shopping in the Emerald City (Seattle). Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait...

Oh yes, and the Lunar Eclipse; The weather was fairly co-opreative, but I was only able to see it for a few minutes as It was behing some trees, and I didn't feel like taking the elflings in the car in their pajamas.

[ May 17, 2003: Message edited by: Raefindel ]

[Gandalf_theGrey]

Raefindel:

Aha! Now I can relate. Many thanks for the explanation of your walking tour and upcoming visit. [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img]

Three weeks ago, I played host to an internet friend from way back named Argo, a fellow X-Files fan with a mild-to-moderate interest in Tolkien.

Picked Argo up from the hotel, telling her I would give her a guided tour through Amon Hen and Fangorn Forest (at a park called Happy Days) and The Old Forest (at Ira Rd., the scene of the tornado).

As we strode up the slope towards the Seat of Power, Argo smiled bemused when I told her she'd soon recognize the landscape as that of Amon Hen. Well, she smiled until she saw the Seat of Power at the top of the rise, looking so eerily similar to the one in Peter Jackson's "Fellowship of the Ring" movie that she literally stopped in her tracks, did a double-take, and exclaimed: "Wow! Looks like they transplanted New Zealand here!"

(Note about the Seat of Power at Happy Days: It's made of brick sides and concrete pavement on top, crumbling and slightly overgrown with grass and moss.)

"You mean Middle Earth," I replied.

Roughly a half-mile later, on loosely clutched boulders grasped by ancient tree-roots appearing about to spring forth and walk at any moment, against a backdrop of ledges 320 million years old from the Paleozoic era, Argo was similarly duly impressed by Fangorn. Especially before the sun came out from behind the clouds, the darkness of the day added to the dense, close atmosphere of the brooding old woods gone treeish.

What about Mt. Rainier reminds you or strikes you personally regarding Caradhras? And what IS Caradhras like in springtime without all that SNOW? * grins *

Gandalf the Grey

[ May 17, 2003: Message edited by: Gandalf_theGrey ]

[Raefindel]

Hmmm... I may have to leave Helen to answer your questions. [img]smilies/evil.gif[/img]

[Gorwingel]

I am just simply surprised that the Spring has gone so fast (the seasons always seem to become shorter as the years go on, I need to slow down in my life). For next weekend is Memorial Day, the unofficial start of summer. After then I will definitely be in a summer state of mind, finsihing my last few days of school and my last few Chemistry projects (oh a class that is one I dislike). I am proud with what I have accomplished this spring, for I have done more and stepped out of my box (I did sports [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]). But summer is a season I enjoy immensely, and I plan to take full advantage of it this year [img]smilies/cool.gif[/img]

[ May 18, 2003: Message edited by: Gorwingel ]

[Samwise]

I am just simply surprised that the Spring has gone so fast (the seasons always seem to become shorter as the years go on, I need to slow down in my life).

I know what you mean. [img]smilies/frown.gif[/img] It also seems to me that we barely had Spring!!! [img]smilies/eek.gif[/img] It seems that the older one gets, the flier time fasts....er...something like that.... [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img]

Something a little odd came for me in the mail the other day.

Anyone farmiliar with the Beacon (gas/oil?) company? They sent me a deal wanting me to get their credit card or something. I forget where the company is based...somewhere back east like New York (somebody correct me if they know better) Anyway, this "back East" company sends me a package, (along with their "get our credit card" letter) of California Poppy seeds that were packed in Texas. Just seemed odd to me.... [img]smilies/tongue.gif[/img] [img]smilies/rolleyes.gif[/img]

[mark12_30]

I think Bilbo had poppies. Lots of 'em.

EDIT: Well, okay, this begs a question. Hobbit Gardens: Formal or informal? Why or why not? And how do you support your thesis?

Maybe I should check if there's a thread on that already...

[ May 18, 2003: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]

[Samwise]

Nice to know I've got somethin' Mr. Bilbo would approve of, Miss Helen. Haven't planted the seeds I recieved, but I've already got second or third generation poppies growin' in the garden.

As to your "EDIT", what exactly do you mean by "formal" or "informal"? My garden, I would not think, is to "formal"--not bein' in neat little rows, that's for sure. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] It's a mishmash of both things I've planted or things the local birds have planted, or, like my poppies, have come back from later generations.

I think that Hobbits might plant things according to their likes. I imagine the flowers in the Gamgee's yard may have been planted "informally" just like mine, for pure enjoyment rather than orginization, while the Bagginses---erm, say, particularly the Sackville-Bagginses---may have been to a "T", so to speak. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img]

That's my thought on the matter. I'll shut my big Hobbit trap now. [img]smilies/wink.gif[/img] [img]smilies/smile.gif[/img] [img]smilies/biggrin.gif[/img]

[Nurumaiel]

I'm just going to jump right in and pretend I've been here the whole length of time that this thread has been going.

*jumps in*

All right, about my garden... Right now I'm 'digging it up.' There are two trees in it and over the years many leaves have fallen from those trees into the garden and there is a huge carpet of long dead leaves. I am also putting up the little stone wall that will be in the back. But as I do this I am pondering over what kind of flowers should be put in this hobbit-looking garden. There are already some wild roses springing up. Violets and poppies are probably definite. Most likely sunflowers, as well. What other flowers would hobbits have in their gardens?

[Birdland]

Don't know if Hobbits would like this flower (BTW - I always figured Hobbits would go for that jumbly English cottage garden look) - but it definitely has a Middle Earth connection

I purchased a plant called foam flower from the horticulture lab at my school. As I was "Googling" the plant to see what its requirements were, I noticed that the third listing was from the Encyclopedia of Arda.

Turns out that "Foam Flower" is the English translation for the name of Eärendil's ship. In Quenya it is Vingilot

So if anyone asks "What's that plant?" I can state: "That's Foam Flower. Tiarella cordifolia in Latin. Vingilot in Elvish".

[mark12_30]

That professor sure had some fun twists and turns and tricks up his sleeve!

Nuru, what I recall from Gandalf's compliment to Bilbo (Early on before Bilbo's departure) was, "How bright your garden looks!" And then TOlkien describes it a bit-- as I recall, nasturiums and snapdragons were on the list, and I think sunflowers?

I don't have my book here to look it up, they were fall-blooming annuals, I think.

And there's a Hildebrant picure that for some reason always sticks in my mind... very lush shady look... not what Tolkien drew, but heart-wrenching in its own way.

And then there is of course Tolkien's classic depiction of The Hill, which gives us the overall layout and was what inspired me to ask, Formal or Informal?

I'll be back with what links I can find.

Oh, boy. This is the inspiration I needed this spring...

(off she goes, hunting for pictures...)

EDIT

Rats. Can't find the one I was looking for. aybe it's just too old; it's from when I was a kid. If my memory serves, it was Sam cutting the "verge", surprised by Gandalf; but not yet being dragged up by an ear: he was listening. The foliage all over the ground was like wild lily of the valley.

But... that isn't mentioned in the books.

[ May 19, 2003: Message edited by: mark12_30 ]

[mark12_30]

Inside Bag End, Bilbo and Gandalf were sitting at the open window of a small room looking out west on to the garden. The late afternoon was bright and peaceful. The flowers glowed red and golden: snap-dragons and sun-flowers, and nasturtiums trailing all over the turf walls and peeping in at the round windows.

‘How bright your garden looks!’ said Gandalf.

[mark12_30]

They are amost unfolded, the lovely beechen leaves.

Shire violets, Bree myrtle, beorn-bears-breeches, wilderland lilacs, Eowyn's wysteria, Frodo's bleeding hearts, and a handful of lingering poet's narcissus. Overall a lot of purple.

What is spring doing in your Tolkienish garden?

I wonder... What flower do you associate with your favorite characters? Or to put it another way-- what character do you associate with your favorite flowers?

Luthien is associated with Niphredil (snowdrops), this we know. And Arwen and Aragorn, with Elanor (this we know.) Also with the White Tree blooms.

What kind of flower do I think Amroth would most enjoy?

How about you-- favorite flowers for favorite characters?

[Mithadan]

In honor of Birdland, who I dearly miss, I am bumping this up for further consideration.

[Lush]

I was able to spend a week in Kiev this month. There was an honest-to-God nightingale in the trees of the old cemetery across the road. The chestnuts and cherries were in bloom and you could smell the sticky new poplar leaves.

I remember stepping off the plane and smelling the rain and flowers and thinking that there isn't a place in the world that feels this way in May. Even the drunks in the park were cheerful. Even the stray dogs drinking from rain puddles were wagging their tails.

[Annunfuiniel]

So, the spring is virtually gone and summer is waiting just around the corner. I've been a bit lazy in my garden this spring though, so there's still much to be done. A whole lot indeed, for my garden is old and not that well kept (we have owned this place for just a year and a half)... So, instead of beautiful, even lawn we have a field of thousands of dandelions (if that weed didn't have those bright yellow flowers I’d be sure it’s the invention of Sauron himself!!). It seems hopeless...

But luckily there are other things blooming or coming into bloom: apple trees, some spirea, violets (the easiest flowers for someone not born with a green thumb, me thinks), daffodils... My lilies are growing fast, and so are the hosta and peonies. Got to love the springtime!

I must take part in this "for or against" oaks -discussion. Where I grew up oak didn’t survive very well the winters and was thus very rare. Now that I've moved to a somewhat milder climate (within the borders of this northern country) I truly am broud to be the owner of one (still quite young, but no matter) oak tree! Alas, beeches don't have much chance growing here, though now I'd really like to have some planted in my garden...

Originally Posted by mark12_30

How about you-- favorite flowers for favorite characters?

Don't have favorite flower for one specific character in mind but must say I can't think of a more elvish flower than gladiolus... Can't wait them to bud in my own flowerbed.

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by Annunfuiniel

I must take part in this "for or against" oaks -discussion. Where I grew up oak didn’t survive very well the winters and was thus very rare. Now that I've moved to a somewhat milder climate (within the borders of this northern country) I truly am broud to be the owner of one (still quite young, but no matter) oak tree! Alas, beeches don't have much chance growing here, though now I'd really like to have some planted in my garden...

We have taken down about ten oaks this year, ostensibly for the firewood and to make room for a veggie garden, but coincidentally the beech trees now have a great deal more room to stretch their limbs.

THis year we are definitely siding with the entwives... at least around the house. Back acre is still entish.

Don't have favorite flower for one specific character in mind but must say I can't think of a more elvish flower than gladiolus... Can't wait them to bud in my own flowerbed.

For some strange reason, at the moment, when I thought of Amroth I thought of Cosmos. I'm not sure why that makes emotional sense. I'll have to give it a lot more thought. Since his voice comes on the wind from the south-- but I'm not thinking of his voice, I'm thinking of his character... but I still don't get why I like the idea. Must ponder.

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by Lush

I was able to spend a week in Kiev this month. There was an honest-to-God nightingale in the trees of the old cemetery across the road. The chestnuts and cherries were in bloom and you could smell the sticky new poplar leaves.

I remember stepping off the plane and smelling the rain and flowers and thinking that there isn't a place in the world that feels this way in May. Even the drunks in the park were cheerful. Even the stray dogs drinking from rain puddles were wagging their tails.

I never knew Luthien lingered in Kiev.

[mark12_30]

Originally Posted by Birdland

When Spring unfolds the beechen leaf, and
sap is in the bough;
When light is on the wild-wood stream,
and wind is on the brow;
When stride is long, and breath is deep, and
keen the mountain-air,
Come back to me! Come back to me! and
say my land is fair!

So how will you make this a Tolkienish Spring? Are you tidying up the flower beds and planting taters by the light of the full moon? Throwing off your winter rags and dancing in the sunlight in front of an overthrown barrow? Or maybe walkin' in the willow-meads of Tasarinan?

Let's hear your thoughts as coirë turns to tuilë.

Breathing deep and striding long: yes.
Tidying up the flower beds: Yes.
Walking in willow-meads: Well, oak-hills.
Dancing in the sunlight: er, walking. Not dancing yet.

But overthrowing the barrow DOES sound like a great idea. Hmmm. How does that song go again???

[Loslote]

I'm digging my car out from the snow bank so I can practise driving (meh); finishing up the school year; and shoveling the mid-April snow off the driveway. Alaska doesn't really have a "spring" season. We do have the overnight "greening" when suddenly everything changes from grey to green. It literally happens overnight. It's quite beautiful.

[Erendis]

I can't wait to go back to my village for Easter holidays.This time of the year,you cannot open the car's window when driving between the orchands.The scent of orange,lemon and mandarin bloosoms can duzzle you.

[mark12_30]

The daffodils are fading, and the bleeding hearts are stretching taller. The lilacs will be open in a few weeks or maybe even in a few days.

I await the Beechen Leaves. So far, no indication of swelling buds.

[mark12_30]

The groundlevel leaves (sprouting from the roots) are now open.

Bleeding hearts abound.

And.. the Poet's narcissus are beginning to open.

[Ibrîniðilpathânezel]

Spring didn't just spring here, nor did it do its usual creeping in at a snail's pace (no groundhog is an accurate predictor of spring, here, since six weeks from the second of February would be a remarkably early spring). No, this year it exploded. The trees that normally would just be budding already have leaves, the daffodils and tulips and forsythia are nearly spent, not just beginning. Our cherry trees have already blossomed and fallen (I hear that up in Door County, our state's cherry-growing region, they had their earliest blossoming ever this last week, something like three weeks ahead of schedule). Our lilac's buds are quite large, and if we have more warmth and sun later this week (as opposed to the cold rain we've been getting this weekend, which is normal for this time), they may open. It's not the first time things like this have happened, but it's pretty unusual. Even a lot of the oaks are already budding, and some even have small leaves. Just goes to show that in every wood in every spring there IS a different green.

[TheGreatElvenWarrior]

Originally Posted by Loslote

I'm digging my car out from the snow bank so I can practise driving (meh); finishing up the school year; and shoveling the mid-April snow off the driveway. Alaska doesn't really have a "spring" season. We do have the overnight "greening" when suddenly everything changes from grey to green. It literally happens overnight. It's quite beautiful.

But the green that's on the trees just at that moment is the most beautiful green I've ever seen! It's worth the whole white winter just to see that colour!
We have this tree in our back garden where there are little yellow flowers that only flower in the spring. It is glorious!