Thanks for this. My elderly mum is about to move from her home of nearly 60 years to an apartment by the sea and seems to mostly be concerned about whether her potted Gingko will take to its new living quarters. I'm encouraged by you reports about their hardiness and will report back to her!
Personally, I think I'm more of a larch person myself, mostly because I absolutely love their new growth in spring, all soft and green.
Lewis accuses me of paying too much attention to plot. I'm distracted by the improbable setup that Mrs Gamart was not able to intervene in the initial sale and setup of shop enough to stop it before it was a done deal. As Florence says, it took six months to do and there's no way she couldn't have known. This makes me feel like Mrs Gamart willfully allowed the shop to get set up, just so that she could destroy it. Florence doesn't stand a chance, and for me this moves the tone from "sad and pathetic" to downright cruel.
This is a very convincing interpretation. I had been assuming that Mrs Gamart had had a vague plan in the back of her head for the Old House, and then when Florence bought it, Mrs Gamart thought, Wait! That was supposed to be MINE!
But your suggestion, that the very fact that Florence bought the Old House caused Mrs Gamart to embark on a path of destruction, makes a lot of sense given her character.
I think your interpretation was the author's intent. Perhaps a simple plot point of Mrs Gamart just returns from an extended trip in Italy only to find her beloved house is gone. Or maybe she's in league with the evil banker, who plot to get some sap to buy the house, then they steal it back without having to pay for it. Although if that were the case, they could have just stolen the house from the previous owner.
Beautiful, beautiful trees! Here in Santiago it is spring and when we planned this trip I hadn't thought about missing fall and the changing of the leaves. So, thank you for sending me a visual piece of it.
Thank you so much for this informative comment! I agree that we ought to keep these trees around to enjoy—and also because it would be terrible to let them go extinct after they have survived for millions of years. It is especially short-sighted to only grow male trees just because the females produce the stinky fruit. Genetic diversity is more important than pristine sidewalks in spring!
Thanks for this. My elderly mum is about to move from her home of nearly 60 years to an apartment by the sea and seems to mostly be concerned about whether her potted Gingko will take to its new living quarters. I'm encouraged by you reports about their hardiness and will report back to her!
Personally, I think I'm more of a larch person myself, mostly because I absolutely love their new growth in spring, all soft and green.
Oh wow—I will have to look for larches in the spring! I didn’t realize that they have a special beauty then too.
Best of luck to your mom. I hope she will love being near the sea. And from what I have read, her ginkgo will be ok. 😊
Lewis accuses me of paying too much attention to plot. I'm distracted by the improbable setup that Mrs Gamart was not able to intervene in the initial sale and setup of shop enough to stop it before it was a done deal. As Florence says, it took six months to do and there's no way she couldn't have known. This makes me feel like Mrs Gamart willfully allowed the shop to get set up, just so that she could destroy it. Florence doesn't stand a chance, and for me this moves the tone from "sad and pathetic" to downright cruel.
This is a very convincing interpretation. I had been assuming that Mrs Gamart had had a vague plan in the back of her head for the Old House, and then when Florence bought it, Mrs Gamart thought, Wait! That was supposed to be MINE!
But your suggestion, that the very fact that Florence bought the Old House caused Mrs Gamart to embark on a path of destruction, makes a lot of sense given her character.
I think your interpretation was the author's intent. Perhaps a simple plot point of Mrs Gamart just returns from an extended trip in Italy only to find her beloved house is gone. Or maybe she's in league with the evil banker, who plot to get some sap to buy the house, then they steal it back without having to pay for it. Although if that were the case, they could have just stolen the house from the previous owner.
The irony is that no one ever wanted the house until Florence bought it. Mrs Gamart is such a dog in the manger!
In the subalpine PNW, people call this time of year “larch madness”
That’s brilliant!
I think that’s a great article 📖📖📚📚. I really like ginkgo trees I find them to be so beautiful and unique and fascinating! I actually made an article on them https://open.substack.com/pub/caidenmurphy/p/why-its-best-to-grow-ginkgo-trees?r=6r8m58&utm_medium=ios&shareImageVariant=overlay
Oh thank you for sharing your article!
Beautiful, beautiful trees! Here in Santiago it is spring and when we planned this trip I hadn't thought about missing fall and the changing of the leaves. So, thank you for sending me a visual piece of it.
I hadn’t thought about how you would be missing out on fall! But do enjoy the spring blossoms!
Thank you so much for this informative comment! I agree that we ought to keep these trees around to enjoy—and also because it would be terrible to let them go extinct after they have survived for millions of years. It is especially short-sighted to only grow male trees just because the females produce the stinky fruit. Genetic diversity is more important than pristine sidewalks in spring!