A few days ago, I received in the mail another shipment of Hibaku seeds – two more ginkgo and two jujube – from my friend Hiroshi Sunairi, he of Tree Project Film fame.

In the package was a screener of Hiroshi’s film, and it is beautiful and thoughtful and has a gentle rhythm, and the skies and clouds of Hiroshima remind me of the skies in Miyakazi films, and many of the Hibaku Trees are camphor besides – recall that in Tonari no Totoro/My Neighbor Totoro, Satsuki and Mei move into the Japanese countryside, a giant camphor tree nearby being one of their father’s main reasons for choosing the house.

Last weekend, I planted two of the Hibaku trees – ginkgos both – out into the forest, establishing a new plot in the far northeast corner of the property. Should one of the trees turn out to be a female (and with any luck I’ll end up with one of each, though I probably won’t know for many many years), their position far from the house will hopefully keep the smell of rotting ginkgo fruit (which is reportedly a formidable and disgusting one) away.

I created a small pen from some old wire and cedar branch poles, in an effort to keep the deer at bay.  Deer will eat nearly anything, but I don’t find them to be especially ambitious.  With plenty of other forage more easily accessible, they will hopefully choose to dine on something other than ginkgo leaves (assuming they don’t hunger for a taste of the exotic).