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Sunday, February 22, 2015

a beech's toffee





If you could be any tree, which would it be?

I've asked this question before, mostly of myself. Today, after six days of below freezing temperatures and alternating ice, snow, ice, snow, ice over that time frame, I ask it again. 

Cabin fever has me feeling fanciful. 

So my answer is the American beech because of its resilience, its tenacity. Fagus grandifolia, from the Latin Fagus for "beech," grandi meaning "great" and folia for "leaves." And there they stand still clinging on to those dead dried leaves long after others have dropped theirs. But why? I simply cannot fathom. But assuredly there has to be a practical reason. Somehow it benefits the tree.

The beeches behind my house stand stoic, sober in the snow. Still decked out. 

The soft brown leaves, the color of toffee, are beautiful today. Simply beautiful on a day I'm craving a little color and perhaps a little toffee. 

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