Date: April 15, 2010 @ 8:35 AM

Plant a Tree

Last night I heard our resident owl hooting. Today I saw her and the name fits; she is great. (“Great” sounds more important, wise and aloof than “huge.”)

I assume that pretty soon we will see one, two or three baby owls peering out of the hole high up on the oak tree by the Sullenger House at Nickel & Nickel. They have been returning each spring.

I doubt that they are finding it quite as peaceful as in previous years because we are busy working on the courtyard. Daniel and his crew have just transplanted 20 London Plane Trees (platinus somethingotherus—I took Latin). If you don’t know them, think of all those parks in France where the old guys sit and play pétanque with Gauloises cigarettes dangling from their mouths with 2” long ash. (How do they do that?)

Maybe we need our own pétanque (or boules) tournament once we get this all put back together. (Smoking would be optional.)

Of course, planting a tree—or twenty—takes more than a hole and some “O-B-Joyful” (as my grandfather dubbed fertilizer). We are installing: trenches for drainage, trenches for irrigation, trenches for lighting and even trenches to connect trenches. It means that, for now, tours are taking a detour around the courtyard.

When all of this is done (and that may take a little while), we hope to have a stone pathway and reflecting pond that will greatly add to the serenity and enjoyment of the courtyard. In the meantime, the owl family may be hoping that we keep the commotion down while they are trying to sleep.