European tree frog - Hyla arborea

This week, again at my girlfriends, I took photos of European tree frog - Hyla arborea. Actually, I have cheated a little bit, because I didn't find this frog in nature. I asked my friend, whom works at Ocean Orchids company, and these tree frogs have come to live in the greenhouses, where they have perfect conditions to live. So, I asked her if she can catch me one, because I need a photo of it for my diploma. Well these are the photos of the frog. Of course I let it go free in nature.

So, read you later!

Uroš

The man who planted trees

Today I would like to write about a book, that was recommended to me by someone. It’s about a story that had high influence on me, and, we could say, on my meaning of life. This is a blog about a story written by Jean Giono – The man who planted trees (original title: L'Homme qui plantait des arbres).

It’s been probably round year and half, if not two years, since I bought this book. As I said before, it was recommended to me by my friend, with words: “This book will be probably right for you,” when I begged her to write me a list of books that I should read. And it really was.

It took me a while to find it. There weren’t any books left in bookstores in the dozen places I checked, so I had to buy it over the internet. I don’t really like to buy books that way, because it’s too unpersonal if you haven’t had that book (or one of it's sibling-books) in hands before, but sometimes there is no other way.

The Slovene copy of the book is printed on special paper, and equipped with wood engravings by Peter Abram. 

When the book arrived, I was surprised by how thick it was. But luckily, I have learned already, that the quantity of the written is not always quality. And then I smelled it. I just love the smell of books, of their paper, and sometimes I even think that I can smell the letters in them. So when I smelled it, I was surprised again, it smelled so differently from the other books. Maybe because of the paper they used for the book.

The story is partly autobiographical, and it talks about a shepherd, who had unselfishly planted thousands of trees in the ruthless landscape in the French Alps.

I won’t talk about the meaning of the story, because I believe, that every story gives different wisdoms to different people (if you don’t have the time to read it, you can watch it below). For me, this story was inspiring, and it has woke up the calls in me, which I hadn’t heard in a long time. The calls, which made me become a gardener, but during the school time, and this whole world going so fast, I had forgotten about them.

So, I started planting my own trees. I started with Ginkgo biloba. I had collected seeds in autumn, in the city where my school was. I planted them in spring, on the day of the earth, 27. April 2010, and soon they sprouted.  I have them on  the balcony, where they are exposed to the sun and the wind, so that plants can be more resistant. I decided that I will give them to the people, I care about a lot, and are special for me. I have already given a few to some of them, and as they say, their ginkgos are growing nicely. This year I also planed gingko seeds. And because this is an international year of forests, I will plant them on the land we own, to form a little forest. 

Last year's, and this year's plant of Ginkgo biloba

I have already prepared seeds of a Dove tree – Davidia involucrate, of Monkey puzzle tree – Araucaria araucana, and I will probably some other tree seeds.

So, now if you would like, well actually I highly recommend you to watch this short movie 'The men who planted trees' by Jean Giono, and I hope it will touch you too, but still try to read the book.

Part 1/4:

 Part  2/4: 

Part 3/4: 

Part 4/4: 

So, read you next time!

Uroš

Bamboo diary: Moso sprouts

Today, I just returned from a week-long holiday on a Tenerife island, and I was really happy when I saw my first bamboo sprouts. The seeds of Phyllostachys edulis – Moso - have sprouted. While I was gone, I kept my grandma busy, I told her to keep an eye on them, and to write down the dates of emerged seeds. When I came home, she happily told me: ”You have three small bamboos there, and I had to look very closely, so that I could see them.” These were the first three Mosos (11.9.2011), which came out just 14 days after the sowing. Then the next day there were two more sprouts, and today another two, again. Gosh, I’m happy, seven out of thirty. I really do hope, that they will all survive. Oh, and I almost forgot. It looks like, there is no difference between the seeds, which have been soaked through the night, and those which weren’t.

I am surprised that, again, none of the Fargesia nitida seeds have come out, even though they were fresh, and the Moso seeds against them, were over a year old. It probably happened because I hadn’t put them in the fridge for stratification, and it will, therefore, take them a little bit longer to sprout.


Here you have some pictures of the little ones:

sprouted on 11.9.2011

sprouted on 12.9.2011

sprouted on 13.9.2011

So, read you next time!

Uroš

George R.R. Martin and A Song of Ice and Fire

If you have thought about me, about where I have been for the whole of the August,  you were probably thinking something like: ‘there he went, he stopped again.’ Well actually, it isn’t like that. I was at my girlfriends, and unfortunately they don’t have the internet yet. And even if they would have it, I probably wouldn’t have had any time to write. That’s because I had some student work to do. I had to earn some money for car registration. I was working for practically whole day, every day. And there was this other thing I was doing, which took my precious time. Of course, I gladly spent it doing that. I was reading.

By the title of this blog, you have probably already guessed, what I will write about. If not, let me tell you. I won’t be mistaken, if I say that you have all heard about the famous HBO series, 'The Game Of Thrones'. We are about to talk of that, just not of the TV series, but instead the book series, written by one (I only have two) of my favorite writers, Gorge R.R. Martin.

It all started in 2007, when some free book magazine jumped in my hands. While I was just flying through its pages, I automatically stopped, when I saw a picture of a front cover of the first of Martins books, translated in Slovenian language by Boštjan Gorenc. When I saw the title of that book I just knew (I hadn’t have known GRRM or any of his books from before) that is it / IT. So, I read the passage from the book, published in that magazine, and I fell in love. I ordered the book over the internet, that very day. It came to me in just a few days.

Book I: A Game of Thrones

I was reading the first book for almost three months. But not because it wouldn’t be interesting, it was because it was so grand, and full of everything. I needed time, to just get to it, and maybe also because of Martins ways of writing. What I mean by that: Martin writes these books in his own way. It would be, like, when you are reading it, it’s day light, you have your favorite characters in the book, and you somehow see, how this should be going. But, yeah, this you can expect in normal books. Martin, in his books at least, in these series, makes things a little bit different. He kills your favorite characters, or does something horrible to them, and events in the book, which you would probably finish differently, usually as is finished in normal books, he twists them totally around, so that you, as a reader, really have no idea of, what had just hit you. Suddenly, it becomes totally dark, or better to say, night time. Everything is turned around, and you have to build the castles of imagination in your head again, and here is daylight again. This just happens again, and again, and again. So, by this shocking effect of Martins writing, I had to stop reading for a while, and then, when I started again, I was just swallowing it whole.

When I finished the first book, the hardest thing was waiting, and waiting for the next one. 'A Clash Of Kings' came out next year, in 2008, 10 years after the original was first published. And I must say, I was a little bit disappointed. This book wasn’t translated by Boštjan Gorenc. This guy, who translated the second book, hadn’t had such a good vocabulary, which in these kinds of books, is a 'must be'! But yes, all the other books are translated in Slovenian language by Boštjan, and I really have to say, that I don’t know if anyone else at all, is as capable to transte Martins books, as he is, for the way he does it.

Book II: A Clash Of Kings

Book III: A Storm of Swords

With the second, and the third, and now the fourth, I didn't have much 'problem' reading them, because I got adjusted to it (ali just got straight to it). So I was just reading, reading, and reading some more, and doing almost nothing else, until I finished the book.

  

Right now, I’m reading the fourth book, 'A Feast For Crows'. I have just a few chapters left now, but I’m trying to delay. I don’t want the story to end, because I’ll have to wait for the next book, 'A Dance With Dragons', for too long. 

Book IV: A Feast for Crows

Anyway, for now my favorite two books from this series, are the first and the fourth. Why? Well they do say, that the first one, you never forget. And the fourth; although in this book, none of my favorite characters are there; because Cersei Lannister finally got what she deserved and because it’s signed by 'the' Gorge R.R. Martin himself. And it's also signed by Boštjan, with a dedication even. 

THE autograph of GRRM

A dedication and autograph of Boštjan Gorenc

Just three weeks, before I had to go to Scotland, for three months of practical internship, in Logan Botanical Garden, I had saw on a Facebook post, from Boštjan Gorenc, that GRRM is coming to Slovenia, on the 22nd of July. I cursed all gods, titans, and mythological creatures, from every culture that was known to me. 'Why, oh why, do I have to go to Scotland, just when he comes?!'

So, I called up my best friend, Polona, whom I had also infected with these books, and I said to her: 'Polona, if you want to give me anything for my birthday, take my books to be signed.' And she did. She was standing there, in the line for round 5 hours, just to get an autograph for me. Polona, I’m really grateful for that, thank you so much!

Polona next to the GRRM

GRRM on signing in front and Boštjan Gorenc in the back 

The book was waiting for me on my bed, when I came home. I just sat down on bed, opened the book, and stared at the autograph, for 5 minutes or so.

Now, if you want to know how it was, on Martins visiting and signing the autographs, you can read Polonas blog. And I am also adding 'Not a blog', a blog, which isn't one, by GRRM, it will be right under the links on the right, 'Other bloggers'. And of course, I shouldn’t forget on Boštjan Gorenc's blog.   

So, read you later.

Uroš

Bamboo diary: Dividing Phyllostachys nigra

Last summer I bought my first bamboo. Of course, in our garden centers you don’t have much choice of what to buy. Usually you can find only Phyllostachys aurea or Phyllostachys aureosulcata f. aureocaulis, and of course Phyllostachys nigra. Sometimes you can also find some Fargesia. I decided for P.nigra, because of its dark black canes and light small green leaves.

I planted it in a rain container, from which I had cut of the bottom first. It is 70 cm tall, so that the bamboo wouldn’t escape. I buried the container into the ground, and left the upper edge just a little above the ground surface, so that I could see if I had got any running rhizomes. 

The buried contanier with bamboo.

In one year the bamboo has grown well and it has established quite nicely.

But some of the rhizomes have come out, and instead of finding their way back to the soil, they have shoot out their culms.

This spring I cut them down, and it looks like, that from these rhizomes, or - more likely - from their sleeping buds, new shoots have emerged. Today I dug around them, to see if they have their own roots yet. And they did. I took out two small plants and transplanted them. They didn’t have enough roots, so I had to shorten the culms, because of the balance between roots and leaves. For planting I used mixture of light humus, compost, and quartz sand, so that it wouldn’t get to sift when watering, and growing of the new roots would be easier. I put the young plant indoor, because of the hot sun outside, which would harm the just transplanted plants.

Now that the plants have been potted i have to cut some of their culms.

So, read you next time!

Uroš