Pssst, Boston... ready for another gathering?

osso, have you seen "Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian"? One of the sight gags in it involves a 12 foot-or-so-tall live Jeff Koons dog gamboling around the museum. And I do have to say that the dove tree looks rather like someone did all their underwear laundry and hung it out to dry on the branches of the tree--maybe it'll look different in the flesh, er, wood.

No, but I'll check it out. I remember Jeff Koons being much much much derided on his way to zillionaireness. Dove tree is also called, I gather, tree of hankerchiefs. I can't tell from that photo about its form or leafing ... bunch of plants look interesting in bloom and haven't much beef in other seasons than bloom time, in my and some other folks' opinion.

... going twice ...

It's precipping alright. I wonder if we should change plans, but I'm a little queasy about it because some people might notice too late that the plan has changed. I suggest we still meet in front of the visitor center, maybe 12:50-ish, and discuss any potential indoor alternatives there.

Monterrey Jack -- they start in front of the visitor center, at the top of littlek's map.

Are we still on for today? It's been pouring on and off. I have just sent a PM via Facebook to littlek, George and Thomas, with RP's and my home and cel #s.

Last I saw we were on for 1 PM for a tour. 100% chance of rain today and high of 59 (it's currently 56 here). Thoughts?

I'd be happy to explore indoor alternatives. I thought it might be more practical to explore them at the arboretum -- see my last posts -- but we can do it here, too. Suggestions?

the rain has ceased -- for the moment, anyway.
meet you at the top of the map @ ~ 1:00pm...

So we got together at 1:00, Jes, and Reg, and Thomas, and me, and the rain held off. Jes had her pedometer and we walked at least 5000 steps. We liked the European beeches, tall and stately, with leaves so dark reddish they're almost black and look like bronze when you look thru them toward the light. We looked at the bonsai collection, hinoki cypresses spectacular--though very short--that have been growing since 1787--who has cared for them for 220 years? the last 100 in this country of short attention spans.? We saw the macrophylla magnolia--with 24" long leaves and 20" flowers--eat your hearts out, Mississippi, our magnolias are bigger. B ut we couldn't find the dove tree. We looked, we really did, but it's JUST NOT THERE. Sorry, those of you whowere expecting a report on it.

Then we went to the Border cafe in Cambridge for lunch. I got lost. We tried to help Jes come up with a business model for the publishing industry in a world where everything is available electronically for free with the click of a mouse.

Jes took over a hundred pictures and will be posting her selections over the next several days. So who's going to join us the next time around?

Hurrah for pictures!

It's currently downloading image #156 out of 202. Then I have to play with the pics, eliminating, among others, the ones that are just of my feet.

Looking forward to the pics when you are able to post/link, Jes.
On the dove tree, now we have an a2k mystery tree.

I love beeches, have only seen them, that I remember, twice. Once at Filoli, a famous-to-californians garden, where there was a big swath of them all bronzy leaved behind a field of blooming lavender. Spectacular. If I ever connect my scanner.. And once at Dumbarton Oaks, in DC. Great trees.

We got beeches out the yingyang here. There is a massive renovation going on at the old, central public library. Neighbors and environmentalists agreed on one very important thing - save the Beeches! (and of course, save the rest of the big old trees too).

Yeh, I was very impressed.

Some of my favorite trees at the arboretum are the dawn redwoods (just babies at approximately 100 years!) and the amur oaks. Such different trees and within sight of each other.

I know and like dawn redwoods, but don't know amur oaks..

My favorites was a group of three trees that looked just like the Blutbuche in my grandmother's garden. (Monterrey Jack pointed them out to me. Evidently he liked them too.) The literal translation of the German name is blood beech -- of course I blanked out on the name -- but the tag on one of them merely identified them as European beech. I like blood beech better. The leaves on most beeches I've seen in Europe were green. By contrast, the leaves on these were glowing in an intense, dark red. Beautiful color. Beautiful, majestic trees.

In winter (at the arboretum) - very gnarly trees with bark that is soft when you knock on it (cork).

The Blutbuche is a variation of the Rotbuche - Copper Beech or Purple Beech in English. (At least that's how the English and Scottish called ours here.)

Er, that's what Monterey Jack and Littlek and I were talking about earlier. Although I'll admit I don't know if the one at Dumbarton Oaks is purple/bronze/copper/whatever, I do know the ones at Filoli are.