I've basically lived in my house for about nine years and I've never once looked at my apple tree very closely. Why would I look closely at an apple tree there isn't anything interesting about it right? It's just an apple tree for crying out loud! Wrong, wrong, and again wrong! I've started to observe the tree, but not just sitting there and staring at it with big open eyes. What I mean is that I've really started seeing the tree with not only my eyes, but also my mouth, hands, and nose. With my hands I felt the smooth yet soft leaves. The taste of the sweet apples and the ones that are not so sweet. Even smelt the scent the tree gives off as the breeze comes my way. I have open my eyes now to see what my own apple tree is capable of.
Fall is here now, so its time for the trees to say bye to their leaves slowly. My tree doesn't have just leaves there are apples there too! What's going to happen to them? Well most of them get eaten by birds, but even my dog eats them too. Other apples just rot slowly and sort of disappear. And then there are other apples that cling on to the tree for dear life. It seems that the apple dries up and hangs on the leaf. This looks like the dry apple is glued to the leaf! Days past and these apples were still there. I would think the wind would knock them down, but they proved me wrong again. These little guys want to still be a part of their tree.
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| Field Note 9/12/14 |
Trees are homes to even the smallest little insects. The other day when I was observing my tree I was looking closely to one of the branches and I found this gold little dot, so I got my phone out and put my camera closer and just when it was focusing I saw that it was alive! This little critter looked like a ladybug, but the most weird thing about it was that it was gold! The insect looked like if it was a piece of jewelry.They are so rare yet so beautiful. Why are they gold? Why do they live in an apple tree? Is their color a way for them to survive? I did a bit of research on these critters and turns out they are mostly in California, so the cool thing is that I actually found them in my apple tree! They aren't ladybugs though instead they are Charidotella sexpunctata. To learn more about them go to http://baynature.org/2014/02/27/whats-small-ladybug-like-golden/.
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| Field Notes 9/24/12 |
This tree has so much to give not only for us, but for the creatures it attracts. I am able to look more closely at this apple tree and notice the changes its going through and see the home it provides for insects, birds, and more.
