PORCH PONDERINGS

Trees

14. Roast Chestnuts Day
Every Christmas holiday we all sing about "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire...."
But, have you ever roasted chestnuts!?

NO, never. Don’t even know what they taste like. Are they edible nuts? Well the name says they are. Do you have to roast them? See? I don’t even know that.

I grew up in a town where most of the streets were named after trees. I lived on Beech Street. There were Elm, Poplar, Chestnut, Pine, Oak, Cedar, and Sycamore streets.

Currently in my town, Roundup, they are taking down green Ash trees. There was something in the paper about pro-active intervention against the green Ash tree insect that is coming to or already in Montana. So the city is removing some of the old green Ash trees that are in bad shape. I don’t see any around my house that are marked for destruction. I’m glad. I hate to see trees demolished.

Roundup was named Montana's Tree City for 2020. The city plants many trees each year. I applaud that effort. We had the city plant a tree for us this fall. They actually replanted a tree for us. A tree we paid for last year died. Not our fault. We think they made an error in planting it, so they replaced it for free. I love trees. They add oxygen to the atmosphere. They cool the earth. They can shade your yard and make it 10 degrees cooler under the leaves.

We all know this poem, or should:

Trees
BY JOYCE KILMER

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

You know you can count the apples in a tree. But only God can count the trees in an apple. Think on that for awhile.