Well, let me tell ya ’bout this garden, full of them… uh… burls. Yeah, burls. Don’t rightly know what they are, but they’re everywhere. Big ol’ lumps on the trees, lookin’ like the tree got a bad case of the bumps or somethin’.
Folks say they’re kinda like… uh… like the tree got stressed out, you know? Like when your cow won’t give milk or the chickens stop layin’ eggs. Tree gets all worked up and starts growin’ these weird knots. Full of little buds that never sprouted, they say. Sounds like a bunch of hooey to me, but what do I know? I just tend the garden.
Now, these burls, they ain’t pretty, mind you. Not like them roses or them petunias I got growin’ over there. These burls, they’re just… weird. But some folks, they go crazy for ‘em. Say they got some kinda special grain in ‘em, makes ‘em good for makin’ stuff.
Heard tell they use ‘em to make bowls, and them fancy pens, and even… veneer? Don’t rightly know what that is, sounds highfalutin to me. But I guess it’s like thin slices of wood, real pretty-like, they stick on other stuff to make it look fancy. Like when you put a new tablecloth on a beat-up old table, you know?
- Bowls
- Pens
- Veneers
And get this, they pay good money for these burls! Can you believe it? Some ol’ bumpy, knotty wood, and people are willin’ to shell out the cash. Heard tell some of them big ones can go for hundreds, even thousands of dollars! Land sakes, that’s more than I make in a whole year! Maybe I should start a burl-sellin’ business, eh? “Granny’s Burls – Get Your Knots Here!” Has a nice ring to it, don’t it?
But I ain’t greedy. These burls, they’re part of the garden now, just like everything else. The flowers, the trees, even them pesky weeds. They all belong here. And besides, I kinda like lookin’ at ‘em, in a strange sort of way. They’re different, you know? Not your run-of-the-mill pretty flowers. They got character, like an old, wrinkled face. Reminds me of… well, never mind that.
This garden, it ain’t fancy. It ain’t like them pictures you see in them magazines. Ain’t no neat little rows, ain’t no perfectly trimmed hedges. It’s a wild, unruly garden, just like me, I guess. And these burls, they just add to the charm, in their own bumpy, knotty way.
So, if you ever come visitin’, don’t be surprised by them lumps on the trees. That’s just the burls, doin’ their thing. They ain’t hurtin’ nobody, and they’re part of the garden’s story, just like everything else. They say every garden is unique, well, I guess these burls make mine extra special unique, wouldn’t you say?
Now, some folks got them gardens filled with just one kind of flower, or maybe just vegetables. That’s fine, I guess, if that’s what you like. But me, I like a little bit of everything. A little bit of pretty, a little bit of ugly, a little bit of weird. That’s what makes life interesting, don’t you think? And that’s what makes my garden, with all its burls, a special place, I reckon. You could say it’s a real conversation starter, like them fancy games them youngsters play on the internet, you know, the ones where you guess the words? Seems like everyone’s always looking for somethin’ different, somethin’ to talk about. Well, my garden, and them burls, got that covered, that’s for sure.
So, next time you see a lump on a tree, don’t just dismiss it. Take a closer look. You might be surprised by what you find. Maybe it’s just a plain old knot, or maybe, just maybe, it’s a burl, full of hidden beauty and worth a whole lot more than you think. Just like this old garden, and just like, well, just like lots of things in this world, if you just take the time to look a little closer.
Anyway, gotta get back to work now. Them weeds ain’t gonna pull themselves, and the burls ain’t gonna admire themselves neither. Gotta keep this garden growin’, bumps and all.
