Phenology: catalpa

There's a tree on the corner of 218th Street and Park Terrace West that's looked half-dead for a long time. It's gnarled, not very tall, and looks as though it once had two trunks, one of which has been cut off near the ground.

All of a sudden, it's in bloom, and has been for the last week. By "all of a sudden," I mean that neither cattitude nor I can remember seeing it bloom before, and we've lived here since 1987. I didn't recognize the flowers, and couldn't find them in my tree identification book, but the Web came to the rescue, and then I pulled out the tree book again, looked in the index, and there it was. We appear to have a northern catalpa, Catalpa speciosa, though not the large, spreading tree that many of them are.

I do wonder whether we've somehow managed never to walk down that block during the relevant week or two of Spring, or whether this tree had been ill and has now recovered. Either way, it's very pretty, and attracting bumblebees (who also have roses and irises and lots of other flowers in the adjacent garden).

Phenology: catalpa

There's a tree on the corner of 218th Street and Park Terrace West that's looked half-dead for a long time. It's gnarled, not very tall, and looks as though it once had two trunks, one of which has been cut off near the ground.

All of a sudden, it's in bloom, and has been for the last week. By "all of a sudden," I mean that neither cattitude nor I can remember seeing it bloom before, and we've lived here since 1987. I didn't recognize the flowers, and couldn't find them in my tree identification book, but the Web came to the rescue, and then I pulled out the tree book again, looked in the index, and there it was. We appear to have a northern catalpa, Catalpa speciosa, though not the large, spreading tree that many of them are.

I do wonder whether we've somehow managed never to walk down that block during the relevant week or two of Spring, or whether this tree had been ill and has now recovered. Either way, it's very pretty, and attracting bumblebees (who also have roses and irises and lots of other flowers in the adjacent garden).

Inevitable

In the Madison airport bookstore/gift shop, I saw a three-dimensional Sudoku puzzle. It was a Rubik's cube, with six each of nine numbers instead of nine each of six colors.

Inevitable

In the Madison airport bookstore/gift shop, I saw a three-dimensional Sudoku puzzle. It was a Rubik's cube, with six each of nine numbers instead of nine each of six colors.