May 16th is National Love a Tree Day. While I have lots of tree books, I will show several tree books that I do love.
The first is “The Two Oldest Trees, One Dead One Living” by Rufus Janvier Briscoe, 1914. This is a very interesting book. It talks in detail about travels to the Petrified Trees in Northern Arizona. He then discusses several old trees in California-Sequoias and Redwoods to find the oldest and largest. Quite intriguing stories.
The next book is “Tree Gossip” by Francis George Heath, 1885. This book gives interesting facts about trees, labled alphabetically. It is a wonderful book to just enjoy easy reading for a while, and to find interesting facts about trees. For example, learning about bog wood, or bone trees, or amber, or cork trees, and match trees. There are a hundred stories and facts of trees I could tell you about, but this is not too dificult of a book to track down and read for yourself.
My last tree book is “The Human Side of Trees, Wonders of the Tree World” by Royal Dixon and Franklyn E. Fitch, 1917. This book is a little harder to find, and especially with its dust jacket-though the jacket hides a beautiful pictorial cover. With both black and white illustrations, and some colorized ones, this book is also a wonderful book to just relax with and find out more interesting stories about trees.
The authors state that “as a class, (trees) are the very oldest of living earthly things. They cannot evade or run away from danger. Patiently they must endure drought, flood, earthquake, fire, storm, and insects. Yet many of them rise superior to all forces working for their destruction, and reach ages which cause even man to marvel.”
They also then state “their aim is to present the trees as living, lovable, personalities-working and playing in a world quite as real and vital as our own; and possessing many habits and attributes which we often imagine are excusively human.” How can one not be intrigued by such an introduction.
May 16th is also National BBQ Day. I have several interesting books on that topic as well, but first for my classmates that went to Spring Bluff School, and had class in the church, remember the BBQ cooking in the kitchen…and wafting smells through the classroom?
First book is Better Homes & Gardens “Barbecue Book” 1959. This nostalgic book gives great advice and recipes for cooking in the back yard. The pictures may be dated, but there is some interesting and valued information for cooking today, along with many new (old) and tasty recipes. Worth a read to take some notes.
Also a few years old is “Barbecue Book-shows how easy it is to cook on spit or grill” by Big Boy grilling equipment, 1956. This book also has some recipes, but really goes into outdoor cooking for those who have never cooked, or only tried a few times, in the back yard or patio. It is also worth a peek.
Last book on BBQ is for those who have cooked a great deal outdoors. This book by Paul Kirk “Championship Barbecue Sauces” 1998, gives you explanations and recipes for making 175 sauces, marinades, dry rubs, wet rubs, mops, and salsas. Using advice from this book, I have come up with “Scotty McHottie BBQ sauce that my family loves. I make up bottles every couple of months. You can make your own special sauces, too.
So start loving trees today. There are great tree stories out there. And then later, you can use some left over cooked tree parts (coals or briquettes), to make some wonderful BBQ. Thanks for reading.
Librarytomes 