“They sure are,” Jake replied. “The Campbell family were not only good farmers, they were also good stewards of their land. After Fergus Campbell died ten years ago, I purchased all of the land, with the exception of the farmhouse and the fenced field that slopes down to these five acres of woods. Under Fergus Campbell’s wise management practices, he and his sons not only cared for these woods, they produced the best hay in the county. Fergus’s wife Sheena is still living but is in an assisted living centre in the city. Her family usually brings her to the farm for a week or two each summer. The rest of the year, the family takes turns using the farm. Even in winter I’ve seen the sons and their families arrive at the farm during school holidays for some cross-country skiing.
“Well, here we are,” said Jake as he stepped off the path and held up a couple of heavy pine boughs for Tony to pass through.
Suddenly, there they were in a large sunny glade, at the edge of which grew the beautiful golden Ginkgo tree. Tony walked over and gently held up one of the branches to gaze at the fan-shaped leaves. I first heard about this tree some years ago when I attended an Environmental Science conference and listened to a botanist speak about the Ginkgo biloba. He called it a ‘living fossil’ and said how it existed over two hundred million years ago. I remember he described two distinctive characteristics of that tree: The first was its particular fan-shaped leaf; the second was that those leaves, unlike other leaves, fall all at once. He turned to Jake, “Have you ever seen the leaves fall?”
Jake shook his head. “Nope, I never have. I did come on two consecutive days to see if the event had occurred. On the first day, the leaves were still there; on the second day, only a pool of golden leaves remained at the tree’s base.”
Tony laughed. “I’ve also not yet had the luck; however, I’ve heard from people who have seen this occurrence. Apparently, they say it usually happens in early or mid-November.”
“I guess I was too late then,” replied Jake, looking a little sheepish.
Tony laughed.
“Tell you what, Jake. Why don’t we pick a date and I’ll accompany you. In the meantime, I’ll do a little research and see what information I can dig up on the synchronicity of this leaf fall.“
“Sounds good.” Jake replied enthusiastically. “Now, let’s take a seat on this stone bench and I’ll tell you how this tree came to be here.”
As the two men settled themselves, Jake began his story.
