Why I Oughta...

The kids *took me* to the Troll Hunt at the Morton Arboretum recently.  And it was awesome.  Like, really fun and interesting.   That's the two little ones hanging out with one of these Trolls.  this one was laying down, holding a rope that is attached to end of a 'trap'.   I say that the kids took me because they have been there to see the Trolls before and this was my first visit.   On this visit, we did the northern loop of the Arboretum and came across three or four trolls  Most of them (if you wanted to), you could mostly make out from your car.  But with a short, enjoyable hike, you could get up close to these giants and the payoff was worth it.   I was so impressed with the show and can't help but wonder how long the Trolls will stick around.  I'm hoping that they'll remain for quite some time, but the Arboretum site only discloses this : The trolls will reside on the Arboretum's grounds as long as possible, with the expectation that

I was out at the Morton Arboretum recently (more on that in a different post) and one of the trees that struck me the most was this pair of European Beeches that you see above.  It is hard to tell, but the leaves of these trees are really quite interesting and are closely clustered to the branch stems. According to the Chicago Botanic Garden : The Cristata European beech is also known as the cock's comb beech due to the way its curled leaves are clustered on very short stems at the end of branches. Here's the tag on the tree.  One note:  Check out how the team at the Morton Arboretum attach their identification tags to the trees.  A sturdy, printed metal tag attached with a long nail.  A spring is added in between the label and the nail head which allows the tree to continue to grow and expand and kind of 'push' the label outwards to the head of the nail.  Very clever. Here's a look at the leaves. I haven't seen these at any of the garden cen