The Trees Are Happy Again

Do you remember my “ghost trees” from a month ago? If you want to refresh your memory, click on the link. The post was about Bird Cherry Ermine caterpillars eating all the leaves of the Bird Cherry trees and spinning weird-looking webs all over the place to protect themselves, leaving the trees all grey and ghostlike. I felt shudders down my back every time I passed – so I have been avoiding that path for a while.

Until today. By now I did suspect that the caterpillars would be gone – turned into new little moths. What I had not expected was that at first sight no one would believe there had been anything at all going on here only a few weeks ago!!! The trees have all grown new fresh green leaves; and the berries are turning black (see the picture in the bottom left hand corner of the collage), bearing witness that we are going towards the maturity of the autumn season soon. (Seems the caterpillars don’t eat the fruits, only the leaves?) Only on close inspection could I detect a few remnants of old deserted webs here and there (see the picture to the right.)

I gave the opinion in the previous post that “Some things In Nature are just Strange”. Have to add now that not only is Nature strange, but it also hides (and sometimes reveals) amazing abilities to repair itself!

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²⁰For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope ²¹that^[i] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.

²²We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. ²³Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. ²⁴For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? ²⁵But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

From Paul’s Letter to the Romans, Chapter 8

       You will go out in joy
       and be led forth in peace;
       the mountains and hills
       will burst into song before you,
       and all the trees of the field
       will clap their hands.

    Isaiah 55:12

Ghost Trees

Some trees this summer are not happy. First impression is that they’re all dead, because all the leaves are gone.

On closer inspection, it seems that some of the smaller and creepier of God’s creations are VERY happy this year: The Bird Cherry Ermine caterpillars.

Because the caterpillars make weblike nests, they can eat a whole tree bare unhindered.

“Yucky” warning for the following pictures
(I can’t believe I even took them):

 
Nest of caterpillars

When they’ve finished off one tree, they move on to the next by using the old rope trick … There were lots of these “ropes” of caterpillars hanging on to each other, swinging from the branches of the bare tree.

But they are choosy little buggers. Apparently they only eat Bird Cherry trees; nothing else is to their taste.

I pass these Bird Cherry trees on one of my usual walks. I never actually knew what kind of trees they were until just recently when they started to appear ghost-like. Now I get a creepy feeling every time. I catch myself kind of huddling as I pass - as if that would help!

Here’s a picture of Mummy (or perhaps Daddy?) Bird Cherry Ermine Moth, from the Wikipedia article. Judging from the number of caterpillars in those trees, I guess later in the summer we should have like a gazillion of these flying around…? The wingspan according to Wiki is 16-25 mm so quite small. And harmless except to this one kind of tree. Apparently though, even though all the leaves may get eaten, the tree does not actually die from the attack.

I was trying to come up with some kind of parallel to human life from all this but I fail. Some things in Nature are just Strange!

Swedish name of the tree: Hägg.
Insect: Häggspinnmal.

A Nearly Perfect Summer Day

 

Lilacs (Syringa)

Lilacs for me are connected with the end of the school year, more than any other flower, ever since my childhood. (Because they usually bloom around this time.)

Today was a perfect summer day for all students celebrating the end of the school year and the start of their summer holidays: The sun shining all day from a clear blue sky, and still not too hot – just over 20°C, and with a nice fresh summer breeze.

Before noon I walked into town to get some groceries. When I got home (by bus, because of then having things to carry) I made a salad for lunch and was able to eat it sitting outside on the balcony. In fact I spent most of the afternoon on the balcony, reading, doing a soduko and listening to mp3/radio (using earphones).

 

 

I did not need to use my mp3-player all the time to shut out noise though. It was a quiet kind of day in the neighbourhood. I was also able in between to just listen to the gulls in the sky above, and the wind rustling the leaves of the trees nearby… Relaxing summery sounds.

My clematis plant (photo taken a couple a weeks ago; the flowers are withering now)

Later on I went for short walk just “around the block” (well, a few blocks). Spring was late this year, and we’re still really only just on the verge of entering into summer. There is still a freshness about all the greenery; and a lot of trees still in bloom.

Horse Chestnut
(Aesculus Hippocastanum)

In July it will be two years since I moved to where I live now (this apartment/ building/ part of town). Last spring and early summer was somewhat chaotic, connected to the death of my mother at the end of May last year. But this spring, I’ve been able to pay a bit more attention to my surroundings. Like how many different kinds of flowering trees are actually planted in the park-like area around these apartment buildings.

Crab apple tree (Malus)

From my kitchen window, I can see a horse-chestnut tree, a rowan tree, Swedish whitebeam, and lilacs, all blossoming right now. (Plus a number of “anonymous” trees in the background.) When I go outside, there are also Japanese cherry blossom and crab apple trees, as well as tall birches and lime trees (linden) and maples; and probably several other kinds of trees that I’m not able to identify.

 

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree.
~Martin Luther~

Focus

Sometimes the camera and I don’t quite share the same idea about focus. My idea was to have the close-up flowers sharp, and the background blurry. The camera had a different opinion. Anyway, spring is coming along, even if slowly. This was three days ago. Since then it has just been getting colder again. +6°C and rain today… brrr…

 

In the Jungle, the Mighty Jungle…

I know that most readers of this blog don’t understand Swedish. I just “have to” include this anyway, even though half the joke gets lost in translation…
 
Brother, dog and I went for a walk in a nature reserve in the countryside again this weekend. (It is quite close to where our dad lives.) From a meadow, a path along the river leads into a wood of mostly alder and birch. Here and there there are signs to tell you what you’re looking at…




For some unfathomable reason, this one sign among all the others seemed to be directed at children rather than adults. First of all they call the alder wood a “jungle”. (?!) Then they go on to say that “in this jungle, there are no dangerous predatory animals or elephants…” (elephants?!)
“But if you look down into the calm water…”
 


… Any idea yet what you’re looking at? …*
 


“… you may see some insects walking on the surface of the water. These are called water striders, and they are predators hunting for other small insects…” 
 


“… using their proboscis.” (Swedish: snabel)
 
You tell me! - but I do suspect that the proboscis joke gets even more lost in English than in Swedish, since with the elephant you usually use the word ‘trunk’…? Even in Swedish, if and when you finally get it at all, the whole jungle joke still feels so far-fetched and out of place that it makes you go “aaargh”…!


* Sorry, to get close enough for a proper macro shot of the insects I would have had to step into the water, and since unlike the water striders I’m not able to walk on the surface… Well, anyway - the black ‘dots’ are their shadows on the bottom of the river (you can see they have quite large feet!); and in the enlarged picture the striders themselves are kind of purplish in colour.

In the Jungle,
the mighty jungle,
the lion sleeps tonight.
In the jungle,
the quiet jungle,
the lion sleeps tonight…
A-weema-weh, a-weema-weh,
a-weema-weh, a-weema-weh…

PS. Would you have known how to spell that ? I mean “a-weema-weh”… Another thing I never gave a thought until just now! But I found it on the Web. Of course!

Endless Tree Views

I'm just having too much fun with the Tourist View of Sweden (see the two previous posts) to quite let go of it yet. So I thought that before I go on to other things, I'll finish off this mini-series with some pictures to show there is actually some variation even in the tree views.



I do have some sympathy with the writers of that Travel Guide, though, because there really is A LOT of just this along some roads... Spruce and fir, and nothing else in sight, for miles and miles and miles... Especially when you go up north; but also in some areas further south.



However, we also do have decidious forests (dropping their leaves over the winter):



Beech forests are more common in the south.



Birch forests you can find both in the south and far up in the north.



Mixed kinds of forest vegetation.

I do not go travelling very far or wide any more, and the pictures in these three posts are all from the area around where I live, in the province of Västergötland. (Link to Wikipedia article.)

Stopping for Lunch

Just as I sat down at the table to have lunch today, I noticed I had company. Well, not actually in the flat, but outside the window. A whole flock of birds invading the nearest rowan and/or whitebeam trees, where there were still some frozen berries left...



Some day I shall really have to get a better camera for birdwatching! At first I thought they were Waxwings (Bombycilla -  sidensvans), but they did not seem to quite fit the image. I guess they were probably Fieldfares (Turdus pilaris - björktrast, snöskata). They seemed to be dark greyish on the back, sort of reddish brown on the chest, and white underneath.



When the birds left, I dare say there weren't many berries left!

Hard times for birds as well as people lately...
-17 degrees C this morning!

Why?

Why even try palm trees when we have perfectly good birches that are used to the weather?!

(Picture taken today in heavy rain.)