Woolies and Conifers

Conversation with Steve-O Pet-r-O
on the Fifth of December, 2006
(at the time, Mr O was a sheep-keeper and shite-sweeper in Maine)

16:47 Stephen: gnarlsome natty sasquatchity gnome-like nate of the north!
16:48 me: not nobody but the gnomishest he!
is furry sheepfell feeling good at night?
16:50 how are you keeping?
16:51 Stephen: apologies for the latest maintenance mail
16:52 me: no worries at all woodromping Mainemeandering woolfarmer!
Stephen: i heard some wolves while watching the sun set this eave!
16:53 i hope they aren't too frisky with the pigs
me: wowser. i am jealous. for reasons that will become clearer if you look at my recent dream about a wolf
16:54 I certainly would be frisky with a pig!
your plants ply their growing trade with pious pleasure
16:55 Stephen: great to hear. what say they?
16:56 me: stickety stackety stem i'm green around my hem!
lippety loppety leaf, we miss our farmin steeeeeeeve!
16:58 did lovely conifer class in arboretum on sun-day
17:00 Stephen: what see ye of the aroborvitae?
me: the tree of life gives me life!
17:01 i never realised the name or nature of this most common plant till the course
like spruce needles, the green has vitamin C
17:02 Stephen: did not know that. what was said about pines?
or my favorite, the tamarack (aka european larch)
17:03 me: an algonkian term for an american larch type, i'm told. larch

17:03 me: an algonkian term for an american larch type, i'm told. larch (

hackmatack in Algonkian!

17:04 what learned I?

a cedar is a type of Juniperus (juniper)

17:05 jack pines keep their old resiny cones for years and years until a fire cracks them open to seed

their needles grow spirally

17:06 wind makes diff noise when whishing through 5-needled white pines (feathery) than through the more brittle red pines (2-needled)

juniper 'berries' are built much like cones with a scaley covering around seeds

17:07 firs have upright (not pendulous like pines) cones which fall apart before they fall off tree

17:08 firs have upward curving needles, smooth twigs (spruces have bumpy noduled twigs), and a fruitier taste than spruces

17:09 hemlocks have needles green above and whitish beneath and a hair-like stem attached to each needle

yews are yellowish beneath and dark green above.

17:10 Stephen: yews?
me: not your wives, steve!
those EWES are also yellow beneath but for other reasons!
17:12 yew trees look much like hemlocks or even some firs, but they are darker green, have an orange red berry with seed (turribly toxic)
17:13 arborvitae have flower-shaped cones, small
17:15 sorry for burying you so much in my typing - i get carried away!
and EB is looking on - so i'm entertaining more than usual even
17:17 black spruce are beautiful and fascinating - in WI they only grow in boggy areas, mainly east and north.
17:19 Stephen: and blue spruce?
17:22 me: och yes. i realise now i had misunderstood them. they are the Colorado Spruce, and seem to be tough and hardy and have been bred into many cultivars