Flora

Chapter 2

Flora

I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree…

A good friend of mine, Lee, once declared that that was one terrible bit of poetry, and I suppose he was right but I had never thought of it that way because in my heart I have always truly believed that hackneyed old line. Moreover, I accepted it as an axiom and used it to steer my life and my beliefs much like others accept whatever religious beliefs their parents raised them with, and draw comfort from the surety of said dogmata. I have almost always had a favorite tree in my life weather it’s one I admire from afar, or one I’m intimate with because I’ve climbed it, fallen out of it, slept under it, or built something using it’s lumber. I used to believe that one of these trees, an enormous Poplar in our Moorhead Minnesota back yard, actually watched over me and cared about me, and I still wonder from time to time if it misses me on identical summer days when I used to climb into it with a comic book, or maybe a real book and spend hours reading to escape the blistering heat and humidity. I made many arrows from it’s branches and a few bows although none of the bows would hold their strength for more than about a hundred shots. It was the most comforting feeling to know that that tree treasured me back and was proud of me although it never did actually hold up its end of any conversation I had with it. It was actually seven or eight trees in a tight circle around a stump that was left on our back property line when NSP cut down the original tree because it was nearing the power lines some forty feet above; how angry I was with those guys when I saw what they had done! “Don’t worry kid, it’ll grow back like a weed!” said one of the guys on the crew who was clearing away the carnage and in fact, in three years it was bigger than ever and had the most amazing hiding place inside all those tightly circled trunks that only I knew about and only I or maybe my little brother could have gotten into. On a really windy day the trees all creaked and moaned and whispered tales to me in a language I never did learn but have always yearned to hear more of.

It seemed a good place to start with Diana because if the beauty of a tree is forever and timeless then at the age of only twenty two months she might be able to appreciate one if presented in a clever way, and ever since she could focus her eyes I’ve been bringing her right up to all kinds of trees and letting her feel the bark, the leaves and the roots and fruit. In fact, she’s got a knack for finding the best sticks to brandish as we walk along park trails and sidewalks “Don’t poke your eye with it…” I warn her and she grins at me and says “K Daddy!” and holds it further away from her body than she was doing a moment earlier. I have been warned by more than one busy body that she’s too young for that activity and I usually smile and ask them if maybe an iPad would meet with their approval? They usually scurry off like lizards on a hot day when a shadow falls over them.

So anyway, in our little SF Bay Area city we are two thousand miles from my old Poplar tree so for convenience I’ve scouted out a spot in our community park, and here I should say that the park has many great distractions; swings, a huge sand area, two play structures- three if you count the one in the sand area, and a mini water park, so, I knew if I was going to get her to notice a tree I’d need to let her have all the time she wanted to play and be a wild little simian.

Scenario: Dad lugs Diana through the park without stopping at ANY of the really fun things to a little hill that is covered in grass and says “Isn’t this great, Baby? We’re going to spend time with this tree for the next two hours!!” in the background you can hear kids screaming and chasing each other and the loud squeak of swings on old hinges..

Instead, we went to the sand area and she dug and piled, literally rolled in the sand and tested its edibility once again to find, once again, that no, it wasn’t all that good to eat but in fact wasn’t really all that bad either!

“Honey, if you’re going to eat it don’t chew it! Your teeth are the only thing it’ll damage!” I said to her hoping none of the other parents were listening.

Diana smiled at me and let the sand fall from her mouth, and I handed her the sippy no spill cup, that really should have been invented 30 years earlier, so she could wash her mouth out. After an hour in the sand she seemed a little tired and hungry which I thought was a perfect time to commune with John Denver and a tree so I suggested we try something new.

“Pill Pot? Can we do something different?”

“Yesh, Daddy!!” she mumbled while throwing a handful of sand at the sky.

So I picked her up and sat her down on a bench so I could wipe sand from her feet and slipped her sandals on, grabbed the back pack/baby bag and our blanket and headed to the back of the park to the spot I’d scouted out previously. Diana followed and when I spread the blanket on the green grass she was delighted and ran to it gleefully and jumped on it for at least three minutes while I unwrapped our afternoon snack. We ate and I talked to her about this being “Our Spot” from now on, and “This tree, the one that’s giving us this nice shade is Our Tree”. It is, in fact, the property of the township of Castro Valley, CA and is a lovely Bay Laurel tree that is quite mature and spreads out at a funny angle because directly behind it is an enormous Eucalyptus tree towering into the sky and the Bay Laurel, in search of sun light reaching out and away, seems to be making a decent living of it with it’s shiny leaves shimmering in the light afternoon breeze and it’s branches spreading out like someone has thrown the water in a bucket away from themselves, only the water has frozen in place and then magically turned into tree branches replete with glistening green leaves.

We had Baby Sandwiches (Kings Hawaiian rolls cut open and filled with small pieces of chicken, mustard and Thousand Island dressing) a Diana favorite, perhaps because I named them for her, and a small treat of Fruit Loops which we made a game of eating like dogs off the blanket and had a contest to see who could get to them faster: Full disclosure, I was faster but I did let her win more than half the time!

And when the gobbling was over I taught her to lay back and put her hands under her head. Every time I have ever pitched a tent I have crawled inside and done exactly this (read The Summer Trip for more on this behavior) and Diana seemed delighted with the new activity.

“Baby, look there at the sky..” I pointed to a spot that was between the apexes of two trees in the distance; the trees were a lovely deep green and the blue streaky sky between them was like a precious stone set into a bracelet of jade. Diana looked and I could see her eyes focus afar so I knew she had it. “isn’t it beautiful?”

“Bew ba bul” she murmured, and I knew I had her where I wanted!!!

“Do you see this tree right above us?” I pointed, drawing her eyes upward.

“Our ree..”

“Yes, my love, Our Tree!!” I could have cried just then; I’m sucha little girl sometimes and so damn sentimental. My mind was overflowing with memories of my once and future Poplar Tree as a kid, and the trees on the edge of the garden that my little brother Timmy and I climbed regularly. Timmy has been dead for five years but I often think of us in those trees, me in the largest one and Tim in the one next to it. They also were “Our Trees”. But dutifully I snapped back to the present because I knew I only had minutes here at best. I cleared my throat “This is a Laurel tree”.

“Laurel tee!” she said with a crooked toothed grin, but her eyes were scrunched in concentration.

“That’s right! And when you get a little bigger, we might climb it together like Chimpanzees!”

She hooted and pounded her fists to her chest like she’s seen the Chimps do it at the Oakland Zoo where she goes nearly every week with my wife, Mei. We ventured off the blanket that we were pretending was a raft, and the grass was a swamp filled with alligators, or at least I was pretending it, and we gathered a few leaves which I told her we could save to cook in soup, or pasta sauce. Any fruit we found was left over from last fall and not edible, but I told her that around Halloween we’d come back and gather as many nuts as we could and crack them open and roast the seed. I’ve never actually done this with Laurel fruit, but I’ve read of it, (I talked to the groundskeeper to see if they sprayed these trees with anything and he said no). There was no knowing how much of it all she actually intellectually understood, and it doesn’t matter I supposed.. My real hope is that some part of her being, her soul if you like, felt that tree, Our Tree, as a fellow being of value, history, and use. On a recent trip we rode an airport shuttle bus and Diana has been in love with busses since “BUSSS!” she’ll delightfully scream when she sees one. Shortly after that, on a day off I needed to go to work in San Francisco and pick something up from my shop, Mei was at a ballet class so I brought Diana with me to show her off to my clients and friends in the city and at one point we stood on a corner and counted busses for fifteen minutes! It never got old for her even though she was getting tired and when we left she waved to a bus and said “Bye bye Bus, I ne!” That’s Chinese for “Bye bye Bus, love you!”

We went back to our blanket for a little rest with our gathered treasures and lay down for a while, my intention was to take a little walk to make sure she was good and worn out but she fell asleep on the blanket and curled up on one side like a little fawn in a field and I used the time to answer a few emails from work on my phone and then I dozed lightly for a while too. Eventually a loud motorcycle zoomed off in the distance and woke us both up and it was clearly time to go home so I packed up after a little snuggling and tickling, and a hundred kisses or so to get her fully awake. I walked over to our tree and put my hand on it “Bye bye tree…” I said sheepishly.

Diana followed my example and said “Bye bye tree, I ne!!” with zest and gusto!!

Mission accomplished!!

Reflections:

• I’d love to start telling her things about trees and plants, like why leaves turn brown in the fall, or how different kinds of Conifer Trees have unmistakable traits like how many needles are in each bunch, but I think it’ll have to wait till she can comprehend more. At this point she speaks better Chinese than English (Chinese is my wife’s home language) but her English is beginning to catch up!

• Sneaking the tree stuff in after she had had here fill of playing was perfect! Must return to the scene of that crime.

• I’m going to look for a kids’ book about trees. Any book will do so long as there is a story and good pictures. I’ll surprise her with it when next we visit our spot.

• We have potted plant called Kari’s Plant on our front steps. Kari, Diana’s adult sister from my first marriage planted it when she was little, and I dug it up and potted it when we moved, and I’ve kept it since. Maybe it’s time for a re-potting and I can get Kari to come over so we can all do it together and share the history of the Kari plant with Diana…

• In the next few months I’d like to use a plant identifying book as we sit under Our Tree and find Our Tree in it, then draw it’s leaves on paper and start a scrap book with Diana.

• Maybe we’ll include Mommy too… maybe not, we’ll see. This might just be a Daddy thing for now.

Addendum: A few days later we ended up at that park again because Diana really wanted to go on the slides, or so she stated. It was Tuesday, my regular day off and Mei was furiously studying information for her new job, so Diana and I were free to go and do as we liked. We started off the excursion visiting Sven, Diana’s oldest brother from my previous marriage. Sven works as the head Chef at a local restaurant and rents the last bedroom of our house from us; he works long hours and we don’t see him much, so we decided to pay a visit! Sven is also one of the people who I know I can count on in a tough place, that he’ll step up when I need him. Then we were off to the park but from the start Diana wouldn’t go near the slides and only wanted to swing, which was fine by me, at least until a little girl came and played in the sand with a lot of great sand tools and Diana wanted to join in. The other girl was having none of it and refused to share and her mother wasn’t interested in my apology, so we moved on and ended up at Our Spot for a while…

• I’ve been planning on having an outing backpack in the car at all times, but thought it was too early for that. WRONG!! We needed it then for sure. Binoculars, Books, Snacks, some Rope, and a journal for each of us, some Pencils…
• I’m not one that thinks every moment needs to be a teaching one; sometimes it’s just fine for my little monster to run around taking turns terrorizing your little monster and their laughter is more than enough, but when the teaching moment comes, I need to have some supplies on hand.
• …If it was me, I’d have insisted that that someone else’s little girl was welcome to share our sand toys, but that’s just me.