Sad news!
My beloved tree friends Miss Goldie and Mister Orange are ill. It's nothing to panic over. I'm sure that
throughout the many decades of their lives they have had prosperous seasons of robust health, as well as seasons of drought, prolonged freezing, infestations of insects, and God knows what else.
They even narrowly avoided getting chopped down in order for the prison to be built where I am now housed at. Hundreds of their fellow trees were not as fortunate, however. In the early 1980s, when plans were being crafted to construct a correctional facility in a heavily wooded area in the town of Wallkill, New York, acres of trees had to first be felled and uprooted.
But by the grace of God and good fortune, some trees were spared because they were beyond the range of the facility's borders. This included the two trees whom I would come to adore many years later. Miss Goldie and Mister Orange avoided the axe by approximately fifteen to twenty feet. The paved road that encircles the outside of the prison and is located just beyond the rows of razor wire fences, is used by the guards who drive their patrol vehicles around the prison's perimeter.
Spared from becoming firewood, my friends continued to quietly live out their lives. But then the day came when I first spotted them as they were arrayed in their autumn beauty. Miss Goldie, as I would later name her, was glowing in a natural gown of sparkling golden yellow leaves. While Mister Orange, whom I would later name as well, stood directly behind and above her. His big branches, I observed,were outstretched with some of them wrapping around her trunk as if to protect her. He stood proudly, handsomely adorned in blazing orange. I was instantly captivated by the two of them.
From that sunny autumn day when they first caught my eye, it was love. It was my love for the beauty of nature. Unbeknownst to them, I became a regular visitor. Whenever I was in the recreation yard, I made sure to stop and watch them. Even out of season when they were barren and asleep during the winter solstice, or when they were covered with an abundance of healthy green leaves during the heat ofsummer, I would stop to admire them.
But this fall was different. When they began to take on their autumn colors, all seemed well. However, within a short time the color of their leaves began to dull. And before I knew it, their leaves all but disappeared. I was shocked and disappointed.
Reflecting on this, it dawned on me that this happened because of the bad drought my tree friends encountered over the summer. For almost all of August and well into September my area experienced very little rain. There were weeks when the grass in our ball field was bone dry. We also had a record setting twenty-one consecutive days of 90 degrees and above temperatures, if I remember correctly.
This, I believe, was the cause of my tree friends failure to bloom to their fullest. Due to insufficient water, they were unable to absorb enough nutrients from the soil to allow for excellent health. Hence their sickly appearance.
But this too shall pass. Miss Goldie and Mister Orange are survivors. They will endure the frost of late fall followed by winter's heavy snows. Their branches will be covered with ice for weeks at a time until the warm rays from the sun begin to appear, alerting them that spring is on its way. They know the seasons well.
D. B.
throughout the many decades of their lives they have had prosperous seasons of robust health, as well as seasons of drought, prolonged freezing, infestations of insects, and God knows what else.
They even narrowly avoided getting chopped down in order for the prison to be built where I am now housed at. Hundreds of their fellow trees were not as fortunate, however. In the early 1980s, when plans were being crafted to construct a correctional facility in a heavily wooded area in the town of Wallkill, New York, acres of trees had to first be felled and uprooted.
But by the grace of God and good fortune, some trees were spared because they were beyond the range of the facility's borders. This included the two trees whom I would come to adore many years later. Miss Goldie and Mister Orange avoided the axe by approximately fifteen to twenty feet. The paved road that encircles the outside of the prison and is located just beyond the rows of razor wire fences, is used by the guards who drive their patrol vehicles around the prison's perimeter.
Spared from becoming firewood, my friends continued to quietly live out their lives. But then the day came when I first spotted them as they were arrayed in their autumn beauty. Miss Goldie, as I would later name her, was glowing in a natural gown of sparkling golden yellow leaves. While Mister Orange, whom I would later name as well, stood directly behind and above her. His big branches, I observed,were outstretched with some of them wrapping around her trunk as if to protect her. He stood proudly, handsomely adorned in blazing orange. I was instantly captivated by the two of them.
From that sunny autumn day when they first caught my eye, it was love. It was my love for the beauty of nature. Unbeknownst to them, I became a regular visitor. Whenever I was in the recreation yard, I made sure to stop and watch them. Even out of season when they were barren and asleep during the winter solstice, or when they were covered with an abundance of healthy green leaves during the heat ofsummer, I would stop to admire them.
But this fall was different. When they began to take on their autumn colors, all seemed well. However, within a short time the color of their leaves began to dull. And before I knew it, their leaves all but disappeared. I was shocked and disappointed.
Reflecting on this, it dawned on me that this happened because of the bad drought my tree friends encountered over the summer. For almost all of August and well into September my area experienced very little rain. There were weeks when the grass in our ball field was bone dry. We also had a record setting twenty-one consecutive days of 90 degrees and above temperatures, if I remember correctly.
This, I believe, was the cause of my tree friends failure to bloom to their fullest. Due to insufficient water, they were unable to absorb enough nutrients from the soil to allow for excellent health. Hence their sickly appearance.
But this too shall pass. Miss Goldie and Mister Orange are survivors. They will endure the frost of late fall followed by winter's heavy snows. Their branches will be covered with ice for weeks at a time until the warm rays from the sun begin to appear, alerting them that spring is on its way. They know the seasons well.
D. B.
