gone!

After searching around on flickr for "red furry tree", it turned up my missing tree: Sumac. More searching on Wikipedia reveals it's the class Magnioliopsida, which is why I'll say I guessed Magnolia. Some species are poisonous, but not this one. Native Americans used to roll it up with tobacco and smoke it; you can drink the juice of some species' berries or use it to treat leather. I liked it because its wintertime blooms really did cheer up this barren parking lot and give me something to look at while walking a certain pokey dog.

fenceline forest

It's hard to tell sometimes what's missing from a picture until you spend a lot of time looking at a picture. Can you tell what's missing here? I'll give a clue: it has lantern shaped blooms with red fuzzy fur-like stuff covering them. The photo below with the red house in the background was taken back in March. The photo on the bottom was taken two days ago. As you can (maybe) see, there is no more Magnolia leaning over the fence into the parking lot. At least I think it's a Magnolia--if anyone else can identify it, please do. I'll put a better photo in the next post that shows a close up so you can see what I mean by what's missing.

forest park

"Great woodland areas are the great life-giving elements of the city."
-City Planner E.H. Bennett, Greater Portland Plan

I've been heading up to my old haunts in Forest Park much as I can justify the time away from job applications and studying. Being away from the park for a while and then coming back to it always astonishes me. There is just so much green here, in so many different layers; coarse like hair here, soft and tendrilly there.

This inscription is on the back of a park bench up on Cumberland trail in the upper park. The first time I came upon this I remember being scandalized and delighted at once. I wish I knew who commissioned it.