Where There’s Smoke, there’s Mount Shasta, Beijing, and Cotinus Coggygria

The 233rd Fourth of July is history, and the atmosphere around Mount Shasta is finally clearing from all the fires and fireworks. We always blow ours off over water (Lake Siskiyou), but some Northern California communities postponed their sky celebrations.

In spite of small-particle pollution and the dangers of strenuous outdoor activities, the city of Mount Shasta had its annual ‘run-walk’ on July 4th–proceeds going to beautify the downtown area. Billed as The Largest Small Town Walk in America, this event of roughly 5000 participants might be the biggest in the world. Happy to say, the air cleared just in time, but the mountain was just not quite its usual self, I’m afraid.

Better than the Olympic city of Beijing, though. Checkout the air quality for all the poor athletes who will be struggling to suck down oxygen. Does it look dismal or what! Some are refusing to participate, and who can blame them? The sulfur, lead, particulate matter and carbon dioxide levels wouldn’t kill them right away probably, but it might ruin their lungs for life.

Back to Mount Shasta. Most recently, the Mountain Runners (sponsors of the annual Run/Walk event) donated $20,000 worth of lights to hang from the trees in the ‘business district’ of our town, one idea being that the added illumination would make our little speck of 3500 folks visible from space. Hmmm…no offense, decision makers, but that doesn’t sound like the loftiest goal in the world. Besides, no amount of artificial lights could have made Northern California visible from space last week or this week. (I know, I know, I’m back to the smoke again.)

Allow me to wax poetic and redeem myself with a more pleasant smoky subject (no, not Smokey the Bear)–smoke as in bush or tree (cotinus coggygria):

How do I love thee, my smoketree, ‘Nordine’! Let me count the ways: Not only does this variety hold her purplish-red color in the hot sun, but she also gets coppery towards Fall. Not fussy about where she puts down her roots, a sun lover and very tolerant of hot dry gravelly soil, ‘Nordine’ is described as the hardiest, purple-leaved form by those in the know. They also say she can surely endure the temperatures of zone 5(-20 degrees F to -10 degrees F), and sometimes even zone 4.

All this description doesn’t come close to the reality of cotinus coggygria, so I have inculded a shot of her luxurious summer bloom. This time I am having the Great Printer make a card and send it to my father as a Get-Well SendOutCard. He’s feeling poorly, but on the mend.