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My recent "The Promise of Spring 2018" features images from a plum tree in my neighborhood in Menlo Park, CA that is a remnant of a great prune orchard from the pre-Silicon Valley days. I call this tree "the Ancient One." Here is my essay about that tree:

***** The Ancient One *****
by Michael J. Genevro [January 2018]

One of my all-time favorite songs is “All the Things You Are” by Jerome Kern. My favorite line from Oscar Hammerstein’s lyrics is:

You are the promised kiss of springtime
That makes the lonely winter seem long.

For me, the “promise of spring” opens my eyes and ears and soul to Life emerging in in the death-zone of Winter.
The “Ancient One” in my neighborhood embodies the Promise of Spring. The Ancient One, a crooked-branched plum tree stands as a remnant of the great prune orchard that dominated this corner of the Valley before the Silicon invasion.

The Ancient One rises next to the side-street path to Nealon Park on Roble Avenue in Menlo Park. For all but 10 days a year, the tree simply blends into the sidewalk gardens of suburban California. Its nondescript, dull green leaves scatter among the scraggly branches throughout the mid-Spring and Summer. The withered tree bears no fruit. Its dying leaves disappear in the Autumn splendor of neighborhood Japanese Maples, Chinese Pistache, and Gingko Bilabo trees.

The recent 4-year drought killed off 30% of the tree.

But for 10 days of the year, the Ancient One explodes with the pink-white blossoms of Winter-Spring.

In mid to late January, the Ancient One stands out as the only blossoming fruit tree in its domain.

For 10 days the Ancient One affirms the Promise of Spring in the near-darkness and deep-cold of Winter - a reminder of an earlier Valley.

Introduction to my gallery of bee images: Genevro's Alvearie

Alvearie = Elizabethan English for "Beehive":

I first encountered the word "Alvearie" a few weeks ago in the context of studying Shakespeare.

Two book collectors found a copy of a 16th century dictionary called Baret's Alvearie for sale on eBay. They purchased the dictionary and studied its contents, especially the hand-written notations in the book copy.

Baret's Alvearie was one of the key dictionaries in Shakespeare's time in England. John Baret was the compiler of the dictionary which identified words in four languages: English, Latin, French, and Greek.

Baret called the dictionary his Alvearie (Beehive) in recognition of the young people who scurried all over the country gather information for the document. We would say that the hard-working youth were "busy as bees."

As the two book collectors studied the notations, they hypothesized that the copy of the dictionary in their possession was the actual document that William Shakespeare used and annotated.

You can find out more about the book collectors and their Shakespeare hypothesis at their Web site: http://shakespearesbeehive.com

For my part, I really enjoy capturing images of bees here on the flowers of Menlo Park.

I hope you enjoy this collection from my "beehive" of images.

About site:

Thank you for visiting my Art and Photography site, genevroDesign.com.

Many years ago i was working as a counselor at the old South Peninsula Jewish Community Center's
summer camp for elementary school-age children, Camp Tova.

Late one afternoon the director of the Center, Will, ran a planning session with the staff for the upcoming Special Interest Day. At one point he emphasized matching our skills with our Interest groups: "We want to make sure that you counselors work in areas where you have talent and abilities. So ... we do not want Mike working in the Arts and Crafts area."

With Will's recommendation sounding in my mind's eye (I have lost most of my hearing and need to see what I hear), I offer my work in Art and Photography here at genevroDesign.com.

I have always had an interest in Art and Photography. However, when I was growing up, I had little time for the arts. My focus for most of my formative years was on the "academic" subjects. There were sound reasons for Will's evaluation of my artistic abilities.

In a real sense, I came to Art in mid-life. When I was working at Hewlett-Packard as a Support Manager, I had pivotal responsibilities in the initial roll-out of the most important project in the company at the time. Basically, my job was to stand between the huge systems organization and our networking organization and find ways to integrate their often conflicting schedule priorities. As my peers portrayed in a skit for our Support staff, I was the monkey wrench that we hurled into the rollout machinery to ensure that all the necessary communications functionality was complete and solid.
Years later after I moved on to another role, our Product Marketing Engineer from the systems release saw me in the corridors of another site. His comment: "I am amazed that you are alive after what they did to you." --- Hmmmm

At the same time my wife Joyce and I were expecting our second child, Whitney. As always, we experienced complications during the pregnancy. Everything turned out well and Whitney is a beautiful, talented young Lady.

However, the combination of the systems release and the pregnancy was excruciating.

In February, 1987, I turned to Art as a way to deal with the multi-faceted pressures. Like so many other Art novices, I turned to Betty Edwards' "Drawing on the Right-Side of the Brain." In the succeeding years, I studied Art during my very limited free time. I spent more time reading about Art than doing Art, but every now-and-then, I would draw or paint something and exclaim with unexpected delight, "Wow! Where did than come from?"

The key point here is that Art is not something separate from the rest of my life. I see Art as one part of the total person that I am, interconnected with every other aspect of my Being.

I still consider myself a novice in Art, in Photography, in Life itself.

I do the best that I can in everything I do.

I hope you find Joy and Beauty in my best.

- MikeG