Okay, most of you are going to say "an acorn". Close enough. But it's way more than that. This is actually an unbelievable complex program, for the creation of a Quercus Robur. Inside this object is a full set of Nature's instructions on how to make one of the world's most magnificent trees - an English Oak, that may grow to 30-40 metres, and given half a chance, live up to 900 years. (It's said that it takes 300 years to grow, 300 years to live, and 300 years to die. Geez, I'm coming back as one of them.) (And please note, that thumb nail is NOT mine).
So, tell you a story. About an acorn. It starts in 1993. Actually, I guess it starts 350 million years ago when the first trees appeared, then jumps forward to just 60 million years ago when the Oaks evolved. But - 1993.
Jess was away having a bit of a wander about, and came across a grove of oaks, decided to bring me back a couple of acorns as a present, fitted with their little French berets and all. And I put them into a small keepsakes box, and there they stayed till about 18 months ago, when I decided that I needed to have an oak tree again. I had a wonderful one at our last place, found as a germinated sprout in some gravel in the aftermath of Ash Wednesday in 1983. But when it came time to move, it was too big (even to sneak over in the dead of night and plant it in the park!) and with some regret, I left it behind, still in its - by then - huge pot. A bonsai on steroids.
Anyway, I decided I'd like another one. So, I scabbed an acorn from up in the Hills, planted it, and as a twist, planted one of my 1993 models with it, watched over that pot of dirt for about six months. But, nothing happened, gave up on them, six months ago did some propagation research, scabbed three more, planted one in the first pot, the other two in another. Watched and watched, Jess giving me weekly updates ("Nup, still nothing happening Sarge...") so we forgot the whole thing, put the pots aside.
About ten days ago - "You have to see something for yourself !!" - and dragged me out the back, and this is what we found. Yep, the 1993 model AND the 2023 model, alive and kicking.
Now I know there's probably way more fascinating things going on in the world, but last week this was the best bit in mine. So I'm going to do you the honour of sharing their childhood with you. Give you updates. Knew you'd be thrilled.
But the big thing here is, that acorn, that set of genetic instructions, on how to make an English Oak Tree, lay around on my shelf for the last 30 years, and now it has been put into the right environment, it's running that program. When humankind and its pissy "AI" can come up with a set of code like this, then I'll be impressed.
The kicker is, that third acorn in this pot, planted about a year after the first two, is also just kicking off! We're creating a forest!
Cheers....
T.R.E.
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