Goodbye to the Tree Year

Dear Tree Year contributors and tree lovers

Now that the International Year of the Forest and 2011 ends, we say goodbye to this Tree Year Project.
In the spur of a moment exactly a year ago, last December, I decided to start this blogging project – and I loved it. In the beginning it suddenly was a lot of work and I would have liked to find a better way to share the posts of all of you. Then it got calmer and every now and then one of the contributors posted an update. There were over 60 participants from around the world. Even though we heard only once from some and more often from others, the idea seemed to be appealing and I bet that most of you couldn’t pass a tree (or *your* tree) this year without looking at it in a special way.
To bad, that Dusty didn’t manage to make the video for the mid-year “celebration” – but everybody had also other stuff on their mind, I’m sure.

Personally I’ve learnt a lot this year and I just wanna highlight two things:
– I always thought that there are only flower buds – now I know that also leaves can start in buds.
– All those initiatives on green roofs was new to me and I really like it.

There are a lot of other wonderful webpages, initiatives and great photos out there, and I’m sorry I wasn’t always able to visit, post the links or let you know about it somehow. People who care about nature are very important!
I wrote an article for “Save our Woods” about this project and mentioned there, that if somebody wants to continue with the Tree Year 2012, I’d be very happy and please contact me.
For now, I want to thank you all for contributing, sharing the idea and making a difference!

Peace,
Natalie aka dreamfalcon aka Ms Tree Year ;-)

P.S. I’d love to read your personal resume about your Tree Year!

The last Tree Year post on my Honeysuckle

My honeysuckle in the blue pot looks pretty much the same as it did a year ago: a lot of empty branches, some remaining brownish leaves and some berries to be picked by European Robins or other birds. It will have to wait until spring again for a direct ray of sun in the morning. Maybe there will be a bird family using the nest just above it as well. We had a very warm November and there are green buds and even one last flower waiting for another warm day before it opens.
But for now, the leave colors have been fading away into a funny purple.

They even got burned somehow by I don’t know what. Maybe the dirt in the air…

I haven’t seen many insects on the plant this year and I have decided that this is due to birds who have discovered it as a food source. Ok, last winter I did put the bird feeder right there, too.

I know that I will continue to watch what is happening on and around my tree – I hope you’ll do that, too! :-)

Last Post on my Lunch Tree

It didn’t work out as planned: for Tree Year, instead of coffee and sweeties after lunch, I wanted to go see a tree and take photos and write about it. I was able to watch the seasons on that big linden tree from the terrace of our cantina though, not much more. But that’s how I noticed the crows building a nest. I was never sure if they really raised any chicks. Probably not, otherwise I would have seen the adults feeding and the chicks calling. But anyhow, without the leaves one can still see the nest. It looks pretty impressive.

September and October Treeyear

Looking back at two fall months and what some of the contributors reported:

Katie saw a Red-shoulderd Hawk and a Monarch on her coast Douglas-Fir (link). Lucinda did syrup with the berries from her Hawthorne (link).

Jen found out about edible parts of the birch and added some great photos from her fallen tree (link). And Juliet as well has some great fall photos of her Hornbeam (link).

the yellow of Juliet's Hornbeam

Please do tell us, how your tree is doing in this final weeks of the year!

The Hoverfly

It might have been one of the last mornings when my Honeysuckle gets some sun and I was able to take this photo of a Hoverfly (Syrphidae) enjoying what the plant provides. It’s probably a Marmelade Hoverfly (Episyrphus balteatus – Hain-Schwebefliege).