Today was a beautiful summer day - no wait, it's still spring, but it sure felt like summer since it was 80 degrees! I noticed on a walk I took the other day that all the trees have filled out at Lone Fir, so I packed my camera and headed over there. On the way I noticed this rope swing in someone's front yard. We used to have one as kids. It brought back nice memories. Funny how some little things can do that.
I also noticed this really cool fence that someone made from recycled metal parts, like old water faucet handles.
I also decided to find out more about the white bicycles you see around town, since there is one right at the corner of Lone Fir Cemetery, at 26th and Stark, which I've always wondered about. I found out these are called "Ghost Bikes." They are memorials to bicyclists who died from being hit by a motorist at that location. This ghost bike is for a young man named Nick Bucher who was only 24 years old. Here's the
link to his memorial, and the Ghost Bike website. They have been placed all over the world. You can click on a map of Portland and identify who the bikes at various locations are for.
Did you know that the cemetery used to be called Mt. Crawford? In 1866, when a group of investors purchased the cemetery from Colburn Barrell, they renamed it to Lone Fir, as there was only a single fir tree at the site. I think the trees of Lone Fir are special, so today my focus is on them, instead of the people who are buried there. Now that it's spring, the trees have new leaves and some are in bloom. It's absolutely beautiful! The grass is also blooming, with tiny daisies decorating many of the graves.
I love the fact that we have Flowering Dogwood trees here in Portland. They are so gorgeous. Spring first began with daffodils blooming, followed by the cherry trees, then dogwoods, lilacs and tulips. Next it will be the peonies. All my favorites!
This next tree is a chestnut tree.
I love the large upright clusters of pink blossoms they have.
Their leaves are similar to the horse chestnut, or buckeye tree, which has white blossoms. There are many of those at Lone Fir, too. In the fall the ground is littered with the fallen nuts, inedible to us, but not to the squirrels!
And speaking of squirrels, they are all over Lone Fir. Squirrels, and also ravens. I noticed what looked like a squirrel chasing a raven, and I stopped to watch. It was hilarious! Apparently someone put peanuts out for the squirrels, and every time the squirrel would go bury one of them, a raven would follow him to eat it for himself. The squirrel did not like that! He kept chasing the ravens away, but they just followed him wherever he went. Here are some pictures of them...
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| "I can get my own, but the squirrel's taste better." |
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| "Go away, raven - I mean it!" |
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| "Get out of here. That's my peanut!" |
"Are those pesky ravens gone?"
On July 24, 2010, The City of Portland designated three trees in the 30-acre cemetery
as Heritage Trees. Heritage trees are those that are regarded as being of "special importance to the city" because of "their age, size, type, historical association or horticultural value." Those three are the cemetery's namesake
Douglas fir; the General Joseph Lane maple; and a 100-foot incense
cedar.
The Portland Parks and Recreation website lists all of the Heritage Trees in Portland, with maps, in their Heritage Tree Guidebook. Lone Fir's can be found on page 31.
Here is the Douglas Fir the cemetery is named for.
This is the General Joseph Lane maple tree.
It is so large I couldn't photograph the whole thing at one time. I did lay down to get this photograph looking up into the tree. This is still only a small part, maybe one-fourth, of the foilage. It's really amazing!
And this is the heritage Incense Cedar...
This tree has such beautiful vertical lines on the bark.
Some other (non-Heritage) trees have identification tags, like this Youngs Weeping Birch. There are quite a few of them. Most have the knobby, uneven trunks like the one below.
But just look at the foilage - beautiful!
I did recognize some trees on my own, that were not identified with any markers of any kind, like this Ginko Biloba. According to Wikipedia, "Ginkgo, also spelled gingko and known as the maidenhair tree, is a
unique species of tree with no close living relatives. The ginkgo is a
living fossil, recognizably similar to fossils dating back 270 million
years." Many of you may be familiar with it because of herbal supplements of Ginko, which are supposed to help with memory and circulation, among other things. I've always loved Ginko since I was a little girl in Pennsylvania, because of its delicate, fan-shaped leaves that turn yellow in the fall.
This is one of the tallest, thinnest Ginko trees I have ever seen. It's the one directly in the middle.
Easy to identify by these special fan-shaped leaves.
Also easy to identify is the Japanese Maple. Their delicate, lacy leaves and shapely silhouettes make them stand out.
The finches were happy in this holly tree with the many red berries to eat, but flitted around too much for me to catch them in a photo. Maybe I could have been more patient if it wasn't so hot outside.
I also enjoyed the camellia trees, which, heretofore, I only thought of as bushes, but they are considered trees.
And of course, the "Rhodies" or Rhododendron, which I just found out are also considered trees, not bushes. They are blooming in all colors all over Portland. I love it!
I really liked how the trunks looked like sculptures, artfully arranged. But, the flowers were the best part.
On my way home from Lone Fir, I came across several TVs, couches and other junk that people had put on the curb, hoping someone would want their discards. I admit, sometimes you can find some cool stuff on the street, but it should be obvious that nobody would want this gigantic TV, which probably even got rained on at some point!
I hope the person saw this and disposed of it properly. Go, Rid Patrol! A few blocks later I came across a woman walking her pet turtle in the street. Too funny! Apparently she takes him on daily walks like this. Only in Portland!
