Saturday, April 9, 2011

The Seeds of Change

Now that spring has finally dug in its roots and taken hold, I've been wandering out into our rather bleak backyard more often than usual. And since this is the first spring I have spent here when I wasn't holding down a job, this is the first time I have started to notice the seeds dropping off our silver maple tree.



Aren't they wonderful? Look at how beautiful they are! They remind me of little fairy wings. In fact, I may use a few of the wings for some mixed media art along those lines.



Since I share a love of all things that grow, I've collected a bowl full of them to try and plant. I've seen a lot of discouragement on the internet about this, saying that there are much better maples to plant than these and silver maples tend to be a very "dirty" tree, forever dropping twigs, branches, leaves, and seeds, but I have dealt with all of these things, having one in my backyard, and they do not bother me tremendously. And it is really such a lovely tee with beautiful leaves; I would love to have a grove of them (away from the house) when we finally move out of the city. Besides, I already have thousands of these seeds raining down on me, and lord knows I enjoy using what the earth readily provides.

So for now, it is my little horticulture experiment. And who knows, if I end up with a bunch of little saplings that I don't want come winter or time to move, I can always give them away.

And so the cycle of seasons continues.

4 comments:

Ericka the Vanilla Perv said...

What a beautiful post. I love the photograph of you holding the seed up to the light. Just saying hello from the S-B Follow My Blogger Swap. You can visit my blog at http://www.vanillaperv.blogspot.com <3 Vanillaperv

LeX said...

we've always called them fairy wings. beautiful photos.

neverwashis on swapbot btw. follow my blogger swap

Amber said...

If you do decide to use them in mixed media, I'd love to see pictures! It's one of the things I miss being in an apartment in TN - no fairy wings around. -- Amber (PisceanMama) from Swapbot

Btw, for some reason your follower button wasn't coming up for me, so I put you on my reader log instead. I do look forward to reading more of your postings!

Surreal said...

I've always loved them - throw a handfull in the air and watch how they come down...miniature helicopters - really neato!