Today is the new year of the trees, a minor Jewish holiday, celebrated on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Sh'vat: Tu B'Shvat. (T-U, The letters Tet and Vav together add up to fifteen: numbers are designated as letters in Hebrew according to where they fall in the alphabet.) According to Jewish law, one is not to eat fruit from a planted fruit tree in its first three years, and in order to remember when exactly the tree was planted, all trees are given Tu B'Shvat as their birthday. Custom suggests one eat fifteen different fruits on this day, and plant new trees.
It's raining, and I don't have a tree to plant (although I could donate to tree plantings elsewhere), but I can offer an entertaining tree link. A few years ago, Katie Holten, a graphic designer, created a full alphabet of New York City Trees. You can see the trees and even download the alphabet here.
A photo from a sunny day last week, up the hill. The magnolias have started to bloom.
Happy New Year of the Trees!
And it's a good day to read Wildwood: a Journey Through Trees by Roger Deakin.
Comments