After a wonderful afternoon meal with Brother Horse ( Windsurfer ) I bid my kin farewell and as I stomped away reflected how wonderful it is that we can still be friends in spite of a difference of opinion. I wish the mammals would use their larger brains and learn this.
I decided to stomp up and over to Cave Hill Cemetery and Arboretum in Louisville, Kentucky. I did not want to eat the arboretum there as I had eaten the one in Lexington right well, and being a conservationist ( albeit a hungry one ) I didn't want to eat all the trees in all the arboretums in the commonwealth. I had come to this particular Arboretum to see another tree I won't eat out of respect: The Ginko Biloba, which is a tree older than I am. After the meteor came, the once plentiful Ginko was confined to the land of China, being extinct everywhere else. It was this way through Woolly Mammoth's age, the last great Ice Age. And there they remained in the orient, until the year 1840 or so ( maybe it was last week, not sure ), when the famous mammal Senator Henry Clay heard of their existence there and convinced it was, either Diplomats he knew in China or visiting missionaries to bring him seeds back to Lexington. This they did, and when Senator Clay received them, Ginkos from this stock were planted at his home Ashland in Lexington, and in other nearby areas. The largest of these still living resides here at the Cave Hill Cemetery and Arboretum.
After paying my respects to such an elder tree, I became hungry and stomped into the woods in search of dinner. I planned to return home to Colorado soon, and wanted to be sure I ate a good meal before I stomped up the road; It is a long road to travel from Kentucky to Colorado !!
I climbed up into the hills well beyond the city of the mammals to seek the best trees. First I found a really nice grove Sassafras albidum; very delicious !! If you haven't tried it before I can highly recommend seeking them out. They are native in this land and very abundant. It has such distinctive flavor; the mammals used to use it to flavor Root Beer, up until last week, or maybe, it was 1960. Not sure on the date but they sure are delicious. They also sometimes taste as if they have a cinnamon flavoring to them.
Next, I climbed up higher into the woods, and then came down the other side into some rich, moist bottomlands; and there it was that I discovered much to my delight a nice collection of Fagus grandifolia, These trees are most abundant in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and her neighboring States. You have to go into the forests to find them because they do not live well in the urban areas where the mammals live. Small mammals, though, wildlife gets along with them well, Fagus grandifolia provides them homes, and nuts to eat. Their leaves are a deep green in spring and summer; and later in fall and winter a bronze colour and tan. Oftentimes, the leaves will remain with the tree all winter; that is, unless I come along and eat them, which I ( hint ! ) did !
Thirdly I wandered through this bucolic Appalachian paradise in search of the fruit of the Asimina triloba , and let me tell you, this tree, ever since I discovered it has provided some of the most delicious fruit you can find in the wild areas of the world. I am still surprised at how wonderful it is; the Asimina triloba provides after gourds, the second largest fruit native to America, right after gourds. The fruit it provides tastes very similar to bananas. They are more likely to produce such fruit when they are standing alone as individual trees; much less likely when grouped together in a thicket. They like shady lowlands, and in addition to their fruit bear the most delicious burgundy flowers.
Lastly, before I began my return trip to my native Colorado, I went in search of the lovely Gymnocladus dioicus, sadly endangered, so I didn't eat it, just like the Ginko. So, I just stomp by from time to time to pay my respects. These wonderful trees thrive in the northeastern Bluegrass areas, where they like rich, moist soils, usually found by ravines so it is good fortune that I came down to the ravine to drink; Its problems reside in the fact that there has been excessive harvesting of their seed pods ( roast them first, mammal friends, otherwise you shall experience that they are quite toxic and become very sick or extinct. ) and they are also prized because of their beautiful flowers. Fortunately these trees can thrive in residential areas so the mammals like to plant them, they are somewhat tolerant of urban pollution, drought, and its opposite, occasional flooding.
I hope if you are just stomping around aimlessly someday that you consider a visit to the most wonderful State of Kentucky; I always dine well here. Well, at least everywhere except Lexington's Old City Cemetary;as some of those markers are quite old. Not as old as myself assuredly; but still, for this area of the world, they take care of the situations around them. This is definitely won by someone who is a caring conservationist. Cheers !! Thus, properly fortified, I began to make my way home to Colorado. Leaving in late August, I was resting in my home cave by late September, or basking in the late Summer sun, shining upon the land of my birth.
