No, not a tale of secret romance - two trees on Grand Boulevard. Carolina is the Carolina silverbell, a lovely little southener covered in white bell-shaped flowers, with large exotic-looking seeds. I managed not to notice it in the 14 years we have both been living in the neighbourhood. David, six blocks away, is Davidia involucrata, more commonly - but less elegantly - known as the Kleenex tree. (Its marketing people try to have it known as the "dove tree", or at least the "handkerchief tree", but everyone not named David calls it the Kleenex tree.) Both are at their finest now in the middle of spring, ringing their tiny bells or waving their handkerchiefs to each other, forlorn, separated by those six suburban blocks, before tomorrow's rain and the summer's drought wither them away... Maybe it is a secret romance after all?
No comments:
Post a Comment