A New Rabbit Hole, With Trees in Everyday Ramblings

We went for a 3½ mile walk in an intermittent drizzle partially in the neighborhood I used to live in this morning. Frida was full of energy even though we let her run a couple of times. She is such a happy healthy dog and I have a crush on her. Don’t tell the cats, okay?

Mrs. Sherlock was frazzled, which is quite unusual for her. They own older side-by-side duplexes and one of their tenants was ignoring a leak in his bathtub to the tune of a $700 water bill. Her Prius is having starting issues. The weather has been off putting, the news discomfiting and her husband grumpy.

She did take a group of 18 folks from the Trails Club on the urban hike on Wednesday that we plotted out two weeks ago and they were a happy crew because we found some quirky features of the neighborhood no one knew about (and had fun doing it).

We found this one triangular shaped block with three huge old trees on it that we thought might be oaks. Just high wild grass and trees. I tried to find out about them and instead ended up finding out stuff about the history of the neighborhood but nothing on the trees. I brought it up before a class as we were all chatting and one of my students who has a horticultural background emailed me out of the blue yesterday to say…

“And then the 3 trees in the Overlook Neighborhood–they are Plane Trees, or also called Sycamore. The botanic name is Platanus acerifolia. There are 3 or 4 species and it is hard to tell them apart. I believe this is the correct species though and the common name for it is London Plane Tree.

I was at Kaiser Interstate for some foot care this morning and did a “drive by.” Boy, they are 3 lovely and amazing trees.”

So that sent me down a heritage tree rabbit hole.

I found a guide to a 10 stop walking tour through downtown that starts at the PSU Library with it’s huge astonishingly gorgeous European Copper Beech out front (I went and admired it last night on my way home from class) that was planted in 1890 and ends a half block away from Mrs. Sherlock’s place in NW Portland with a stunning native White Oak that records indicate has been there since 1843.

Oh boy, more layers of rich history to add to the mix.

The London Planetree…”Reputed to be the first garden hybrid; originally in King Charles I of England’s garden in 1663. Parents are American sycamore and Oriental planetree. The king’s gardener planted these two close enough together to produce progeny.” Apparently are very sturdy and good at dealing with pollution.

…btw: the Southern Magnolia that looms over the south side of my place (that a part of came down on my neighbor’s car during the ice storm this winter) was designated “Heritage Tree #37 in 1994....

I love this feeling of engagement with my surrounds and the history and all the people that came before.

One of the frustrating things for Mrs. Sherlock this week was that they went to their bank to see about getting a loan to replace the roof on their places and the bank said no without even considering it. These are people with significant assets and a perfect credit score. They are thinking maybe it is their age. They were shocked and sobered.

Anyway I was telling her about the Public Bank movement that I had just started hearing about and when I got home I looked to see if I could find some info for her.

This made me laugh, the most recent meeting on establishing a Public Bank in Portland was held on Thursday, ummm, at our church!!!

Who knew?

The cats are very excited, Most Honorable is coming up for a short visit tomorrow afternoon. The cats love him and when they aren’t chasing each other around like they are right this minute they ask when the heck is he visiting again?

I haven’t forgotten about the Apothecary Ball.

Last updated June 10, 2017