another blog entry

[jinasphinx]

In "what I learned today" news: check out Pacific Northwest Magazine's article on the traveling plant collector and the Seattle Times article about why bigleaf maple is banned as a Seattle street tree.

Paul Krugman's For Richer (New York Times Magazine) is long but worthwhile. It argues that our country is returning to its state of the 1920s — one in which rich and poor, left and right are polarized, with little middle ground either politically or economically.

Comments

[tylik.livejournal.com]

Those big leaf maples -- much as I love 'ev -- are hazards! They hit about 30 or so, and start randomly dropping these massive limbs. When I was teaching, I got to watch them take out some fences during a windstorm. Yikes.

Sometimes, I really miss being home.

[(Anonymous)]

Reading stuff like this really makes me miss living in Seattle, or even out in the 'burbs. That and I _really_ miss the Peninsula. Some great hikes back there.

As for bigleaf maples, I know them well. Out in podunk Maple Valley where I grew up, the local paper held a contest every year, The Biggest Maple Leaf in Maple Valley. A farm about a mile from my house won almost every year. He had a huge maple (now that I know what it is, likely a bigleaf), close to 80 years old, certainly over 100 feet tall, with a spread of about 80 feet. Routinely came in with leaves that were over 3 feet wide from point-to-point. One year, had a leaf that was 42 inches across.

It's a shame, now. Highway 18 is going from 2 to 4 lanes out there, and his farm is in the way. I know that his house is getting torn down, but I hope that the state doesn't take that tree, too. I should bug my dad about that, while my folks are still living in the area.

Brian