Friday, March 02, 2012

The Mountain Ash  (The Rowan Tree)

I have not been on intimate terms with the Mountain Ash, - I see them around town, and admire their cheery red berries, but not until we moved here in town have I been able to spend any time with them.

The snow keeps coming, intermittently.  We expect another few centimeters tonight but I think this is just a ruse on the part of spring, - she needs more time to burst forth in all her glory and so she dallies on the path, sending little March messages ahead of her to foil our expectations.

Nevertheless, when I was out in the garden the other day, examining each nook and cranny for bits of greenery or swelling buds, I came upon the Mountain Ash in the back garden, looking quite elegant, its bark displaying that lovely vibrant shade that speaks of rising sap and swelling buds.  There are two narrow, slim Rowans  - one at each end of the raspberry patch, but only one of them had these gorgeous pointy grey-green buds.....



Yesterday morning, when the snow was still on the ground and the trees carried it as garlands, just along
 the street was this lovely Mountain Ash, festooned with scarlet globes.



More snow tonight, says the weatherman, but spring is close enough that the buds will remain and continue to swell, until all is a tender green again.

I am so impatient!!!

6 comments:

Barb said...

Your photos of the Ash are so different, each showing the tree's beauty. It' snowing here in Breckenridge, too - over 4 days we've gotten about 2'. Today is a blustery day with wind chills below zero and blowing snow. I've decided to stay inside. I know your garden can withstand a small quilt of white until spring decides to stay.

The Weaver of Grass said...

How have these berries managed to survive through the Winter Hildred? Here the birds would have taken them long ago. There are plenty of Rowans round here - I think many of them are self-sown but they do make lovely trees don't they?

Yes - Winter and Spring are locked in their usual battle but we know that Spring will win.

Hildred said...

Pat, I think we still have berries because we don't have the the same number of birds staying around for the winter, - just the little birds and an occasional mourning dove, -and of course the quail, but they are not much for finding sustenance in trees.

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

One of my earliest memories is using Mt Ash berries to decorate mud pies. (This was in Spokane Washington, where I lived until I was 7.) Your picture with the snow is beautiful.

John "By Stargoose And Hanglands" said...

Love the picture of the snow on the berries. We seldom see such a thing as the birds have the berries before the snow falls, as Weaver of Grass has said.

Morning's Minion said...

I've recently decided that the shrubby prickly bush I knew as Prickly Ash may not be the true rowan tree. The prickly ones did not grow tall but could be very dense and spreading, encroaching on edges of my grandfather's pastures. Both the small shiny leaves and the tiny hard berries had a very astringent smell when crushed.