Lan Su Garden

I showed up at 9:30, for a memorial service... for a tree.

Osmanthus Life Celebration


There were speeches about how everyone loved the tree - how the Buckman neighborhood donated it to the garden (and how they used heavy equipment to dig it out, transport it and plant it) and how it scented the whole neighborhood in the fall.  I myself had never noticed it before.  It's been suffering for years and is more than a bit scraggly now.

Then we all got cups of tea and drank the traditional Chinese toast for departed loved ones - to heaven, to the earth, and to the ... tree.  (Actually, you're supposed to pour the tea out on the ground, but we drank it, rather than wasting it.)

The tree will be removed tomorrow, with a replacement showing up on Monday morning.  A smaller tree, but it will still need a crane to get it in.

Then I stuck around for Kalina's sketchcrawl in the garden.