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Reposting a relevant Birch comment here...
Oct. 9th, 2003 11:56 amFrom ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
helia44: "It is very hard to pick a 'favourite' tree but Birch has always been closest to my heart. During my childhood in Wisconsin we were surrounded by Birch and they've always felt like dear friends and childhood companions. I'm enjoying your writings very much. Thank you."
Me: They're very 'parental' feeling - When the one in my yard gets big, I want it to adopt me...
Some random thoughts...
It occurs to me that what I've been able to find out in this study of Birch amounts to the 'Uses' of the tree. Not relationship with or friendship with or being with or singing with - just ... uses. Even the magical properties are couched in terms of "what can this tree do for me".
How very people-centered of me. Anyway, upon discussing it with my staff (the birch who died of some unknown cause two years ago), and the living birch tree in my yard, I think the trees vigorously prefer keeping their bark and sap for themselves and not having them used (except maybe in very small quantities, if there is a need). I had second thoughts about posting these things, as I don't really want to encourage people to be taking bark and sap and leaves from trees. This would be ok if the people population wasn't so large - or if the tree population was larger - or if there was a necessity caused by famine as there was in Finland...
As things are now, though, even if a small percentage of people experiment a little bit with these recipes, it can do some damage to the already beleaguered tree population. Anyway, in my next posts, I plan to concentrate more on conversations and singing with various birches... This should be interesting.
helia44: "It is very hard to pick a 'favourite' tree but Birch has always been closest to my heart. During my childhood in Wisconsin we were surrounded by Birch and they've always felt like dear friends and childhood companions. I'm enjoying your writings very much. Thank you."Me: They're very 'parental' feeling - When the one in my yard gets big, I want it to adopt me...
Some random thoughts...
It occurs to me that what I've been able to find out in this study of Birch amounts to the 'Uses' of the tree. Not relationship with or friendship with or being with or singing with - just ... uses. Even the magical properties are couched in terms of "what can this tree do for me".
How very people-centered of me. Anyway, upon discussing it with my staff (the birch who died of some unknown cause two years ago), and the living birch tree in my yard, I think the trees vigorously prefer keeping their bark and sap for themselves and not having them used (except maybe in very small quantities, if there is a need). I had second thoughts about posting these things, as I don't really want to encourage people to be taking bark and sap and leaves from trees. This would be ok if the people population wasn't so large - or if the tree population was larger - or if there was a necessity caused by famine as there was in Finland...
As things are now, though, even if a small percentage of people experiment a little bit with these recipes, it can do some damage to the already beleaguered tree population. Anyway, in my next posts, I plan to concentrate more on conversations and singing with various birches... This should be interesting.