Vimy's Historic Tale

 I'm a little acorn~ oval and stout
Dwelling in an oak tree in a forest green;
And when the wind blows, I am sheltered in its leaves.
Said my “Mother Oak” as she sat her tree within.
“Remember, little acorn ~ originally, you're a British-English Oak!”

When previous French attacks failed to capture Vimy Ridge,
the Canadian corp in 1917, seized the Ridge: a 7-kilo-length.
After the battle was won, Leslie Millen (from Milliken, Ontario) ~
as a Ridge souvenir ~ he found my Mother Oak half buried ~
and gathered a handful of her fallen acorns.
And on his family farm in Scarborough, east of Toronto,
he planted all his acorns ~ trusting they'd survive and grow.

In January 2015, the process began with professional arbonists.
Taking cuttings from the crowns of the oaks that survived,
they grafted them onto basic root stock.
These saplings have been grown at NVK Connon Nurseries.
These saplings are now available for private Canadian plantings
to commemorate The Battle of Vimy Ridge.
For many, many months and many, many saplings,
they were nourished and nursed with NVK love.

And Guess What! I've Been Adopted!
Proudly I stood with about a 4-foot-plus-narrow trunk,
with 2 short branches either side at alternating levels.
Surely someone would yearn me ~ take me home ~
even though I had no leaves, yet!
About a thousand of us to be sold as

Memorial Trees ~ and to honour Canadians who fought at Vimy Ridge.
A little birdie told us ~ there's a Vimy Tree planted at Waterdown's Legion
and one planted at Burlington's City Hall.

It was on Monday, April 23/18 ~ a cool, sunny day ~
an arborist came to retrieve ME~ stating that a West Lincoln family
would lovingly care for ME ~ a Vimy Ridge Oak!
And there she was: the Grandmother...her daughter and family
who were being presented a wedding anniversary gift
to plant on their 23-acre property backing on woodland
and Chippewa Creek.

After purchasing me, our photo was taken on the Nursery's front patio
with the botanist who selected me.

The family kept me in a cool protected room to 'climatize' a few days.
Following directions to plant and care for me, they placed me in rich soil
...and ever so straight, I stood!
They christened me VIMY as Grandmother had suggested!
So exuberant we all were ~ when by the end of May
milder weather arrived: I Sprouted Leaves!
I called Grandma about my quick growth in this, my country home.
I just hope that the visiting deer - won't chew my leaves of green!

(For more information: contact NVK Connon Nurseries in West Flamboro, Ontario.)
The foregoing: composed by MBK...October 4, 2018

Saga of the Acorn
The creation of a thousand forests ~ is in one acorn!
(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Thomas Carlyle further states: When the oak is felled, the whole forest echoes
with its fall...but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by an unnoticed breeze.

Hope Jahren comments that every acorn on the ground
is just as alive as the 300-year-old oak tree that towers above it.

And James Allen muses:
The oak sleeps in the acorn...
The bird waits in the egg...
and in the highest vision of the soul...
a waking angel stirs.

Dreams are the seedlings of realities!

Comments welcome:
Written and Submitted by MBK
November 2020