There is still a chance: Figs from Oct 2005

Days are becoming shorter, nights getting cooler. Will there be any crop figs this year? Photos offer hope. Taken 10/15/05.

This is Vancouver Brunswick.



This is Petite Negri.



One of each. So, there is still a chance.


I think that the Brown Turkey figs will start to ripen in a few weeks.

Waiting for Gentrification: Downtown Quincy, Illinois

Well preserved architecture. I remember when this theater was open (boy am I old). I didnt have to wait for the street to clear - it was this empty already. There are so few cars - it's like a scene in an old sci fi movie, after everyone dies of a mysterous disease and leaves the town vacant (like, say, the Andromeda Strain).



When I was a high school student, this was the Quincy Free Public Library. I was a page there. Boy am I old. By the way, the year that "The Andromeda Strain" came out was about the last year that this building housed the Library.



Diamonds in the rough. If these buildings could be moved, brick by brick, to, say, Astoria, they would be a great tourist attraction. I suspect that the main reason that they are still standing is that no-one cares enough about the neighborhood to either renovate them (in the wrong hands, disasterous) or demolish (which would be a big loss).



Washington Park. These trees are huge. Lindens, Elms, Maples, Sycamores, a Ginkgo, various evergreens. What a treasure.

Three Ginkgo Trees in Quincy, Illinois

This tree is female; she is the mother tree of the ginkgo in my yard in Vancouver WA. (This begs the question - many animals have different term for male and female - ewe and ram, cow and bull, doe and buck, woman and man. So, is it ginkga and ginkgo?). In about 1965, Herman Deege taught me about ginkgos (or ginkgas) via this tree, which when young had the shape of a pine. He was a WWI veteran who was a POW in the UK.



Impressive tree in Indian Mounds Park, south side of Quincy. I dont recall ever seeing a larger ginkgo in person. Probably male, given that there are no fruit on the branches (probably why it survived. Dinosaurs may not have been a problem, but chainsaws are)



Even a ginkgo in Washington Square. Also inpressive size. Do I recall this one from my adolescence?

Travel / off line for 4 days

Flying to Quincy Illinois for 4 days. Probably can't post (at least, not photos) until return.

Quincy is a historic town, by the Mississippi River. A few interesting things happened there.

It's hot and humid in the summer, cold in the winter. Great tomato growing weather. Rich black loamy soil. Good for apples and corn and soybeans.

Ginkgo Seedling

Here is a ginkgo seedling that just popped up in the chives last week. The seeds were collected last fall, washed, refridgerated, then planted in various protected spots around the yard. Kind of the "squirrel nut" method. The picture is approximately life size.

This is the only one so far this year to sprout. It may have been the mold on the seed hulls (I had hoped that this would help soften the hull, but this was unplanned mold). Last year 7 sprouted, but something ate 4 of the seedling trees during the winter, leaving 3.

There is also a "right way", usually involving storing the seeds in the refridgerator after treating with brief immersion in diluted bleach solution (to kill mold), and nicking or scoring the seeds prior to planting in moist sand or moist paper towels.

Then again, there is the idea of eating, not planting the seeds, referred to as "ginkgo nuts'. I tried a few last fall. Maybe again this year, now that I know more about them.