quite often there is a personal connection to my images that leads to a caption worth sharing each day. in the absence of a personal connection, some combination of my own knowledge, my husband’s knowledge, and the occasional session of internet sleuthing, leads me to a fact or two, or a remembered encounter or story, interesting enough to base a description on. here’s my confession. i love this image, but i can’t find anything interesting about the catalpa tree, except that the southern version (which this is not) hosts a sphinx moth larva prized as fish bait. anybody got any fascinating catalpa stories? cause i’ve got nothing.
catalpa bean pod
from the catalpa tree on tanglewood drive, saint paul, minnesota
I grew up on a high hill just across the Mystic River from Boston. My grandmother’s back yard was at the very windswept top, and her garden was magical. I still feel my amazement when Hurricane Betsy blew down that grand old flowering tree. It was about 1955 or so, and it still seems impossible.
What a sad yet lovely story. Thank you for sharing. I have the same kind of attachment to trees. It is nice to meet a kindred spirit.
Mary Jo
I grew up in Indiana and the catalpa tree was sometimes called “cigar tree.” The story was the young boys used to try to smoke the long fruit. Apparently that was when cigar smoking was “in!”
What a coincidence, because I am listening to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on audiobook right now, and I think Twain mentions that same thing!! Great story, thanks for sharing,
Mary Jo