One of the Japanese plums in Mortal Tree blossoming. This one was the first to be mulched and guilded, which resulted in a huge difference of size and maturity between it and its pollinating partner. Although just down the hill, and planted at the same time, this other plum just sat until I mulched it the following year -relieving it of the grass growing right up against it. As a result of this delay in mulching, the partner has not even begun blooming yet. It really is amazing how much grass can suppress the growth of young trees.
Mortal Tree 
Your work is phenomenal! I often adapt your work by put a spiritual slant/meditation on it, then publishing. Careful to give you credit. Blessings.
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Yes, and I always love what you do with it! I love nothing more than providing some inspiration and a little material to spur you on to such great works! Eager to see what spin you put on the Hablitzia post.
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Love your attitude! There is so much “borrowing,” and to take it as a compliment and move on is a wonderful response.
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I’m very much of the “Steal Like an Artist” mentality. While I am careful to not offend the senses of other artists that might not be so outgoing, I always love to give full rein to others, because I just love seeing the results!
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BTW I’m curious about your favorite uses for Japanese plums. My own Japanese plum trees are very young and I don’t get much out of them yet, but I was thinking of combining them with honey to make a plum mead. Would love to hear about what you’re doing with them, because one day, if all goes according to plan, I will have a lot more than I can eat fresh.
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I have dabbled pretty wrecklessy with mead. At the time I was trying to hide it from my parents too, because I was only sixteen when interested in the stuff. I have made a batch of mead to which I added a quart of blackberries for about 2 gallons mead. It bubbled like crazy through its initial fermentation (quite enjoyed watching it really). Rather than becoming the chamagne-like, soft flavored young meads I liked it was quite bitter, and strongly alcoholic. Actually stopped making mead after that because I so disliked it. Perhaps I should have put just a few fruits into the second ferment of the mead just to give a little flavor and gotten better results. I might suggest you try that with the plums.
There are so many ways you could temper the fermentation though. The batches of mead I made before and really liked were herbal, so may have cut down on some of the bacterial/yeast activity? I used all kinds of lemon flavored herbs like lemon thyme, lemon balm, lemon verbena and really liked the results.
I wonder how well Japanese plums would dry though? They are pretty large for getting the water out, but would likely have much more use if dried into prunes. A solar dehydrator in your climate would be amazing I imagine.
I’ll let you known if I come across any other ideas. Thanks for asking.
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It’s such a magical time of year with the blossom coming out. I think I should add a similar note about pictures on my blog, thanks for underlining your love of sharing!
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Your photo was much enjoyed by my Instagram followers. You can see it here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BRf2LBxhl6D/?taken-by=mortal_tree I so appreciate your kind generosity.
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How do you find out that people have ‘borrowed’ your photos?
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There may very well be a lot of my photos out there people are using I am not aware of. They would be the ones that don’t give me credit or the like. I really don’t mind if they are. For those that give me credit, I thankfully notice a small trickle of traffic coming to my blog through those images, so usually check them out. A lot of my images have ended up on pinterest, and actually send some really substantial traffic back here. Even though I’m fine with others using my images without asking, I of course ask the owner’s permission, or at least link to where I got the image when possible. I know you take the time to add your copyright across your photos. Were you experiencing a lot of unauthorized use?
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To my knowledge no one has used any of my photos (except once Facebook used a photo of a gamelan orchestra which had nothing to do with my blog). I started copyrighting the photos because one day I might use my photos in a book and I want to be sure no one can take me to court for publishing my photos. Seems a bit far-fetched perhaps, especially as I’d be using photos of my own garden, but it just seems a sensible thing to do.
Good for you in getting traffic through your photos being shared on sites like Pinterest š.
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That certainly would ensure you have no problems. Crazy things seem to be the norm at times, so I certainly don’t think you over protective by any means. Thanks for letting me know your thoughts.
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Always good to discuss!
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