Somehow I am sad that Summer solstice is already coming. Day-time could get longer, and why not last a day. Its lenght should never decrease. The northern white nights are a wonder. What did write Jón Kalman Stefánsson? "The nights of June, here in the North, are certainly the most beautiful nights of the world, the night light would make you mad with joy, it washes out your anxiety, tension, hatred, envy, and all those feelings which are molds for the soul. All is quiet and transparent. The night of June is a bit like a breath of god, life becomes gentle and soft for a while. Just a while. The wounds from life don't get cured within a night, it requieres more, but the light carresses them tenderly and might let you cry". I'm sorry I'm an awkward translator.
How do the trees live close to the poles? When do they release carbon dioxid in Winter, oxygen in Summer? Of course, trees are rare up North. They are small enough in Island, and the Beatles should have made a song about the norwegian forests rather than about the wood. The old Norses even had Yggdrasil, the giant tree in connection to which the 9 worlds exist, the world tree, which might allow two persons to survive to the Ragnarök...
In stanza 137 of the poem Hávamál, Odin describes how he once sacrificed himself to himself by hanging on a tree; this tree is near universally accepted as Yggdrasil, and if it is Yggdrasil, then the name Yggdrasil directly relates to this story. The stanza reads (Larrington 1999 p.34):
I know that I hung on a windy tree
nine long nights,
wounded with a spear, dedicated to Odin,
myself to myself,
on that tree of which no man knows
from where its roots run.
I regret that trees have to be mortals.
One in the garden has two strange fungi. They look concrete-grey from a distance; if you take one and break it, it will smell bad enough to make you run away.
Tilia (lime tree, linden or basswood)...
Short bloom in the south of France: one had 2 or 3 days to pick up flowers and bracts. Once dried (in a dark place), they make fine herbal teas...
Medicinal uses: anxiety, cardiovascular, colds, sore throat;
Properties: cardiac tonic, cordial, demulcent, diaphoretic/sudorific, hypotensive, nervine, sedative.
Don't ask me further informations, it is just great in Winter evenings with a spoonful of honey!
These last years the harvest wasn't so fine: once the weather was so warm that the flowers dried before opening themselves well, another time they were all sticky because of red spiders... The problem was, this time, that after I started collecting flowers the tree started to buzz. It was vibrant of happy bees. I sacrified myself for honey.
First good year for this young figtree...
Pomegranate flowers
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