The Norway Maple | Podcast to Fall Asleep To

In this episode of The Insomnia Project, a relaxing sleep podcast for insomnia, Marco and Amanda settle into a calm conversation that begins with a simple tree—the Norway Maple—and slowly branches out into an unexpectedly wide forest of topics. What starts as a discussion about this familiar tree leads the hosts down a quiet path through other maples, a brief detour to Manitoba, and reflections on Ottawa and the places in between. Along the way they consider the work of lumberjacks and the arborists who carefully tend to trees in city streets, offering a gentle appreciation for the often unnoticed landscapes around us.
The conversation continues to wander as Marco and Amanda reflect on favourite colours and the many shades of blue that Amanda’s mom associates with her, while Marco shares the colours and pattern of a scarf he’s currently enjoying. As always, the charm of the episode comes from the slow drift of ideas—touching on everything from the propagation cycle of the Manitoba Maple to whether Marco will remember the colours from his own wedding.
You may find yourself relaxing somewhere between tree talk, colour palettes, and a quiet linguistic detour about the word “literally.” It’s the kind of soothing, unhurried conversation designed to help you unwind, calm racing thoughts, and gently fall asleep.
Sneak peek into this episode includes wondering whether the Libby Library App is available everywhere or only in certain places, exploring the fascinating propagation cycle of the Manitoba Maple, admiring the charm of the Swiss Hotel in Ottawa, reflecting on wedding colours, discussing a thoughtful gift, and even spending a moment talking about the word “literally” itself.
If you enjoy quiet conversations that wander through curious topics and everyday observations, press play and spend a relaxing moment with us—perfect for bedtime listening or whenever you need a calm break in your day.
Host: Marco Timpano
Co-Host: Amanda Barker
Producers: Drumcast Productions
Theme Music: Royalty Free – Bass Walker, Kevin MacLeod
• Visit our website: www.theinsomniaproject.com

​The Norway Maple
(Original airdate: October 27, 2021)

Welcome to the Insomnia Project. Sit back, relax and listen as we have a calm conversation about the mundane and hopefully that'll help you drift off and find your Way to sleep. We used to say it's the only podcast we hope you never get to the end of. Haven't said that in a while, so I'm happy to bring it back. I'm your host, Marco Timpano.

Amanda: And joining me is me, Amanda Barker. And, uh, we did have, um, we had some listeners that used to listen on road trips, which I always felt like is. It should have a warning label, like, don't operate heavy machinery while listening to this podcast.

Marco:  Indeed. Indeed. Yeah. I'm always hesitant to be, like, you know, um, too excited. But at the same time, I don't want, you know, I don't want to cause problems for people. So I leave it to their leisure of how they listen.

Amanda: Every listen. Everybody operates on a different wavelength. I used to have a yoga Nidra tape that would knock me out every time, and, uh, I lent it to a friend who lent it to a friend, and she said he would listen to it as he drove to work every day.

Marco:  Oh, wow.

Amanda: And I thought, wow. But he just is operating at a different frequency. So there you go.

Marco:  Did you ever get that tape back?

Amanda: I have it somewhere.

Marco:  Okay.

Amanda: I think. Yeah, I think I made a. Or I burned a cd. Remember when that was a thing?

Marco:  I love that you had a tape.

Amanda: I called it a tape, but I think I actually burned a C. Which we don't even do that anymore. No, we don't just share files. I miss the tapes.

Marco:  You know, I listen on Spotify. A lot of people listen to this podcast on Spotify, so that's pretty awesome, too.

Amanda: I listen, listen. I live by my Spotify.

Marco:  Um, yeah, I listen to podcasts on so many different apps, Amanda. And Spotify, for me, is where I listen to my music and our playlists.

Amanda: Yeah, I sort of have a different app, uh, uh, my acast app for podcasts. And then I have Spotify for music. And of course, I have Libby for my audiobooks, which I listen to as well.

Marco:  I don't know if all our listeners know what Libby is. It is an app, um, that our library here in Toronto uses so that you can take out books, I think.

Amanda: Isn't it everywhere?

Marco:  I don't think it's everywhere, so that's why I'm defining it. No, I don't know if it's just

Amanda: Toronto, but my understanding with Libby, because there's a Toronto app called the, uh, TPL app, Toronto Public Library app, so you can do that for books. But my understanding is the Libby app is an app that you can use from anywhere that connects to your library. So it disseminates it a little bit differently. So you have the same results. Well, that was what I understood it to me.

Marco:  Okay, fair enough. So listen. Oh, that's me turning a page. Um, if you're familiar with the Libby app, let us know what you think of it. Amanda, uh, how was your pumpkin pie cookie that you just.

Amanda: Okay, so I bought cookies at a cookie place. Should I mention what they're called?

Marco:  No, don't. Don't mention the place, because they didn't. They, um. Let's not just not mention it.

Amanda: Oh, controversy.

Marco:  Well, the owner of the store was a bit rude to you once.

Amanda: I know, but their product is that. See, I didn't want to get into that.

Marco:  We won't get into that. But let's see.

Amanda: Their product is that good. That I don't care.

Marco:  They're doing just fine.

Amanda: They are doing just fine. They make doughy, delicious cookies, and if I'm near one of their locations, I pick some up. And I did today, and I've been going enough that I actually. My next half batch is free.

Marco:  Oh, that's great.

Amanda: Is it? I don't know if it is.

Marco:  I don't love these really soft cookies. I like a tougher cookie.

Amanda: Uh, we understand Italy, but from the voice of America over here, give me a chocolate chip cookie with a bit of goo. Just a bit. Just that soft, chewy chocolate chip cookie. Give it to me every day.

Marco:  I like a hard cookie that has a bit of snap to it, as

Amanda: you like to say. It's good with coffee.

Marco:  It's great with coffee.

Amanda: I don't know if we've explained that to listeners before. We have a hard cookie that you dip and moisten with coffee.

Marco:  Well, I brought that up just to say that we're in the autumn feel as we have our.

Amanda: We are. And so I bought cookies today that had pumpkin pie in the middle of them. Like, I guess really pumpkin pie puree in the middle of them. And then surrounded by a chocolate chip cookie. It was a lot.

Marco:  It was soft. Definitely.

Amanda: It was too much.

Marco:  We did have, um, something interesting happen earlier today. We had. You may have heard me talk about my Norway maple. Um, heads up, for anyone in North America, if you're going to be planting a maple tree. The Norway maple is, uh, a invasive species in North America. So I would recommend you find a different maple to plant, because we had to really chop some of our Norway maple, which I love. I love the look of it in our backyard, and I love the leaves that turn orange. But it is a very sensitive and temperamental tree. And we had to do some chopping today.

Amanda: I don't know if it being an invasive species had anything to do with us having to chop it, though.

Marco:  No. What, the lumberjacks or the arborists, I

Amanda: should say, they were for sure not lumberjacks.

Marco:  We had four.

Amanda: They were not lumberjacks. Well, what would you call urban lumberjacks? They were, like, hipster. They were arguing about who was the best snowboarder, and they all wanted coffee with honey.

Marco:  I don't see what they talked about has any inference.

Amanda: No, but a lumberjack, Okay, A lumberjack is, you know, um, a logging cabin guy from a hundred years ago that. What's your definition of a lumberjack?

Marco:  Someone who cuts trees.

Amanda: Okay, well, then that's what they were.

Marco:  They were more arborist. They were dealing with the tree. They weren't cutting it for lumber. So maybe lumberjack is.

Amanda: Picture a lumberjack as somebody with, like, woolen socks and plaid, drinking out of, like, a tin mug and opening a can of beans.

Marco:  So the only thing missing was the tin cup and the can of beans is what you're saying to complete well

Amanda: and living in a remote area. Sure. These are people. We live literally downtown in the biggest city in Canada, and we live in the middle of it.

Marco:  Yeah, but that's not to say that's where they. That's not to say that's where they were from.

Amanda: No, I'm not saying where they're from. That's not where I'm from, but fair enough. But the idea that, you know, lumberjacks who are like, you know, logging. These are people that cut branches. We have a tree in our little postage stamp back deck, the one tree we have, actually.

Marco:  But they cut everywhere. They don't just cut. They just happen to be. They happen to work in urban centers. And they were off to cut a bunch of, um, Manitoba maples. They said.

Amanda: Yeah, and apparently that Manitoba maple stay away even if you're in Manitoba.

Marco:  Apparently. Well, because that tree is designed to propagate. So as it was explained, designed by nature. By nature, of course. Thank you. It wasn't crossbred or hybrid to do this, as it was described to me by these urban arborist lumberjacks. The Manitoba maple works like this or functions like this, or grows like this. They grow really tall and they're top heavy, and they drop a lot of keys or seeds, and those seeds will grow anywhere. They said, like, if there's a crack on a sidewalk with no dirt, a Manitoba maple will grow. And the unique thing about a Manitoba maple, Amanda, is that it'll get so top heavy that the tree will collapse in the forest. And from the collapsed debris, multitudes of Manitoba maples will emerge A few things. Yes.

Amanda: First off, when I picture Manitoba, I don't picture a forest. I picture fields of grain and wheat, uh, silos and grain elevators. It's not to say Manitoba doesn't have forests. I just have never pictured Manitoba forested. For whatever that's worth for any of

Marco:  our Manitoba listeners, I think your province has both the prairies and the trees. And I'm, um, not biased like Amanda. I don't want our listeners for Manitoba to be upset with us.

Amanda: The second thing I wanted to point out is that you used a term that we only use for maple seeds, which is maple keys. And I don't know that everybody would know that because I don't think I knew that for a long time, but that the seeds are actually released with a little thing that we call a maple key. And the seed lives inside the maple key. Yeah.

Marco:  Uh, it looks like a propeller.

Amanda: It does look like a propeller. And it functions like one because it

Marco:  twirls when it comes.

Amanda: You've mentioned it before.

Marco:  I have mentioned it before, but that's

Amanda: not to say someone's listened to that particular Maple key episode.

Marco:  You're 100% right.

Amanda: I think Maple Key would be a fun name for a store or a clothing line or a restaurant.

Marco:  I kind of love the maple Key.

Amanda: Like that. Doesn't that sound nice?

Marco:  Sounds great.

Amanda: It also sounds like Queen's, uh, key. Or in Singapore, they have streets by the water that they called quays, which I think is a British thing.

Marco:  Yes.

Amanda: Written, but it looks quay. It looks like you're reading the word quay.

Marco:  Q, U, A, Y.

Amanda: And so if you're not from Toronto or you don't know that term, you would say Queen's Quay. But it's Queen's Quay. And I remember the first place I went to that had quays was like, that was Singapore. But I think Hong Kong has them, too, which, you know, checks out because it's all part of the Commonwealth. The British Commonwealth. Or it was at one point. Anyway.

Marco:  Queen's Quay here in Toronto is where you would pick up ferries on Lake Ontario.

Amanda: Yeah. So it must be like streets by the water, I think. But I don't remember ever seeing that term anywhere in the States. So just for people who don't know

Marco:  that that was Amanda kicking the table.

Amanda: I'm sorry, was that really loud?

Marco:  Yeah, uh, it bounced. I Just let our listeners know so that if they hear that sound, they know where it's coming from.

Amanda: I'm sorry.

Marco:  Oh, it's all good.

Amanda: You can rewind it and delete it.

Marco:  No, it's too much trouble to do that, really. Well, it can be because it reverberates.

Amanda: I'm really sorry that I kicked the table.

Marco:  It's not a problem. M. You can kick the table as long as I identify that you've kicked the table.

Amanda: Should I do it again?

Marco:  No, don't. Please don't. I do want to mention this, Amanda. We have a couple of people on Instagram who have reached out since last week when I mentioned the other person on Instagram who had reached out. So Alison on Instagram had said that she wants to hear about our Ottawa adventure, that we went on, um, and wants to see more photos. But we didn't take very many photos in Ottawa. Did you?

Amanda: Well, I take photos and then I don't post them, but I'll give them to you and you can post them on this account.

Marco:  So I'll post a couple of those pictures. I only took one.

Amanda: I'm very.

Marco:  Really the one of Alex Trebek at the. At the residence. That was the only one I really took.

Amanda: Okay. I'm very judicious with what I post. It's a thing. I don't know. Maybe it's a Virgo thing. I'm still finding my way friends. Uh, but I mostly just post pictures of me jumping places. So I don't post a ton. But I, uh, did post, I think, one jumping picture in Ottawa. I want to say, okay, give it

Marco:  to me and I'll put it on our thing.

Amanda: Yeah. Or just I have other ones I can send. I take a ton of photos, but I take them only for me. I don't post them usually.

Marco:  Fair enough.

Amanda: Um, that's who I am, and that's what I'm doing right now. We'll see.

Marco:  Well, Alison, in answer to your question, are Ottawa Adventure was a lot of fun.

Amanda: Oh, my gosh, it was so much fun. This is the other reason I take photos. So I can actually remember what it is that I did in Ottawa, because now I'm drawing a little bit of a blend.

Marco:  We went for a long walk and we went to the war Museum. The War museum, which was. Which was a spectacular museum. And, um, I wouldn't have gone had it not been for friends who wanted to go. And then I really actually thought the museum was. Was great.

Amanda: Well, because we went to probably the best known museum there. I believe is the Art museum. Right? The National Gallery.

Marco:  The National Gallery, yes. Yes.

Amanda: Um, so we had been there a year prior, so I'm sure there was new collections and things to see. But because we're not in Ottawa lot, we thought we wouldn't go to um, the same one again. So we went to the War Museum, which was very well done actually, I have to say.

Marco:  And we took a lovely drive to Gatineau and had brunch in Gatineau and it was fantastic.

Amanda: Yeah. So we went to. Can I say the name of the place?

Marco:  Yes. Well, what was the name of the place we were trying to go to? And it was not.

Amanda: Well, we went to a L' aux Mont Coco.

Marco:  Right.

Amanda: Ah, but the place we were trying to go to, I don't remember it had a very simple name like Henderson's or something like that. But where we ended up was Alo Mon Coco, um, which I think wins

Marco:  for names most definitely.

Amanda: Um, it is one of those, uh, Quebecois places that has about a million versions of eggs Benedict.

Marco:  When you find a breakfast restaurant that is Francophone, it's a thing of beauty because like you said, Amanda, they have so many versions of Ex Benedict, my head spins.

Amanda: So we stayed at a, um, really fun little boutique hotel. I'm just going through my photos here, called the Hotel Swiss or the Swiss Hotel. And it was so charming. Um, not accessible unfortunately. But it definitely felt European in the fact that it wasn't accessible. And what I mean by that was I don't think there was an elevator there.

Marco:  I didn't see any.

Amanda: No, I don't think there was three flights of stairs and probably about what would you say, 30 rooms maybe. Your home holds the story of your life. Renewal by Andersen Windows are built to weather every season with you. They frame the little moments and the big ones. From first steps to graduation to new beginnings. While life keeps moving. Our windows stand strong through every chapter. Let Renewal by Andersen be part of your story. Windows Built to last. Visit renewalbyandersonhome.com to learn more.

Marco:  It is a family run hotel. I strongly recommend if you're going to Ottawa and you can do stairs, it's a great place.

Amanda: It's one of the only, um, and one of the last, like family run hotels that isn't a chain in Ottawa. I highly recommend it. They are Swiss and, and they very much lean into the Swiss theming of the hotel which made it a really fun experience for us. There's Swiss artwork. Everything is red, white and gray. Everything from the coffee maker to the robes they give you to the bathroom, to the towels, to the soap. I mean, everything.

Marco:  And I asked the owner or one of the owners, why the gray? I get the white and the red because the Swiss flag, but why the gray? And she said, well, gray is so Swiss because of the mountains and the rock. And it all made sense. I felt silly asking her, but she was.

Amanda: Albina and Alphonse were her name. The wonderful couple, uh, that run it. And it's beautiful, and it's all stone and very, um, feels like something. It just feels like you're in Europe. And, uh, sometimes we need a little bit of that on this side of the pond.

Marco:  It's charming, it's sweet, it's delightful. It's a great place to lay your head down. And it had everything so well appointed in the room, Amanda. And, uh, every attention to detail was really, really taken care of in that hotel.

Amanda: So, yeah, the Swiss hotel.

Marco:  Um, we went for tremendous meals.

Amanda: We had cocktails at a place called the Somewhere Dine Bar. We weren't very hungry because we had had the big brunch at a L' Au Mon Coco earlier that day. So we just drank our dinner that night and had a bunch of cocktails.

Marco:  We were just like, we're gonna drink all the cocktails on this menu. And we did.

Amanda: We.

Marco:  We had about half of them.

Amanda: And then we had cocktails also with friends who were at a hotel.

Marco:  Um, and, um, they're friends of the podcast, actually.

Amanda: Yeah.

Marco:  Joel and Daniela Vlascalik. Joel Cochran, I should say.

Amanda: And they had, uh, they were at a hotel that had a beautiful,

Marco:  um,

Amanda: cocktail bar that overlooked the city. So we went and met them for cocktails. A lot of cocktails in the bar.

Marco:  What was the name of that Holder? Andaz.

Amanda: Andaz. At the Byword Market.

Marco:  Ah. Uh, there you go.

Amanda: Byward Market is that wonderful market area in Ottawa where we've been a bunch of times. But it's sort of a farmer's market, but also lots of restaurants and shops, pedestrian kind of area. Every city needs to have one that's theirs.

Marco:  Alison. That was our Ottawa adventure. Thank you for, um, messaging us on Instagram. We love hearing your suggestions for shows because we often sit down and think, what are we going to talk about? Which brings me to what Lindsay had asked us to do back in October of 2020. And I don't know if we did it. Amanda.

Amanda: Oh, my gosh. Well, we have really made poor Lindsay wait a year.

Marco:  Well, the problem is I'm not so savvy when it comes to figuring out where the messages are. And thankfully, Amy, our social media manager, is on top of that.

Amanda: Um, and so Amy M. Dug this one up and said.

Marco:  Amy dug this one up. Well, actually, Lindsay just recently, uh, uh, sent us a message saying she really enjoys our show once again. And so I saw that she had sent one a year ago and asked us.

Amanda: Or Lindsay. Oh, the weight.

Marco:  Lindsay. I'm sorry, but.

Amanda: And what could it be? I have no idea what this is gonna be.

Marco:  She wants to know about colors and patterns, Specific ones that mean something to us. So is there a color or pattern? And do you remember if we did a show on color and patterns? And do you have a color and. Or a pattern that means something to you?

Amanda: I mean, I know we have talked about colors in the past in different ways, um, with various artists and so on. I guess when you hear colors, I mean, there are colors, actually, that have great meaning to me. And I often associate words with colors. Do you do that, too?

Marco:  No.

Amanda: Certain people do, and certain people don't. Like, certain words to me are red or brown. Um, I know when my mother was pregnant with me, she had a very strong feeling about a color. Okay, same, uh, with my sister. So when she was pregnant with my sister, she felt red. Red, red, red, red, and yellow. My sister loves primary colors. In fact, she's painted her kitchen red. I mean, she loves red. She always has. For me, the color for her was mint green. Like a, um. Yeah, like a sort of a mint green. Anywhere from a mint green to, like, a Tiffany blue.

Marco:  Okay.

Amanda: That kind of aqua color.

Marco:  This is the color she had in mind when she was pregnant with me.

Amanda: Okay. Yeah. And she painted my nursery that aqua kind of color.

Marco:  Sorry, I thought you said red.

Amanda: That's why that was my sister. My name's Amanda, and that was my sister.

Marco:  But I swear, I thought you said red for both of you.

Amanda: No. Okay, maybe. I mean, you can listen back, but no. So, um. So aqua when I was a baby, so when I see that color still to this day, I sort of feel like, well, that's my color, you know?

Marco:  What about seafoam?

Amanda: How do you feel about seafoam again? That's like a mint green.

Marco:  So, yeah, robin's egg blue.

Amanda: That's the other end of it. That's what I'm saying. Robin's egg blue is like Tiffany blue, and sea foam is like a mint green. So it's anywhere in that spectrum of mint green to sea to robin's egg blue.

Marco:  That's awesome.

Amanda: So that color I kind of Associate with like my childhood, my mom, my beginnings in this world. It was the color of my room because it was the color of my nursery. Yeah. So but now I think different. Like we had wedding colors and I very much loved our wedding colors. Although it's funny because now when I think about them, I kind of think it feels like jarring. But not to me and not how we did them, which were. Do you remember our wedding colors?

Marco:  Of course I do. What were they, purple and green?

Amanda: Yeah, they were purple and green. I just love purple and green together. I love just how they work with each other. How about you? Are there colors that we talked about, our wedding colors?

Marco:  Well, you know, colors and patterns. So if I think right now in my life, what's something I really enjoy that has a color and a pattern?

Amanda: Mhm.

Marco:  It has to be the scarf that your mother bought me last year for Christmas. And what she did and what's interesting, Amanda, is when I first looked at it, I thought, oh, this is both a color and a pattern that I'm not into.

Amanda: Mhm.

Marco:  But of course it was a lovely gift.

Amanda: Mhm.

Marco:  Very thoughtful gift because your mother gives very thoughtful, lovely gifts early too. She's on it very early. She will send those presents.

Amanda: Literally your gift is in the mail.

Marco:  Right. And it's late and that's late for her usually.

Amanda: And your birthday's in December and it's literally on its way.

Marco:  So she got me and my brother in law a scarf with the tartan of the provinces we're in. So for me it's the tartan of Ontario. And for my brother in law, your brother Garrett, the tartan of Nova Scotia, which is blue and very rich and more my aesthetic eye or something that my eye would go to.

Amanda: Mhm.

Marco:  And the one that I have is like a, uh, dark green that's red and green.

Amanda: Right.

Marco:  And a rust color and a bit of orange or muted m gold. I'll take a picture and I'll put it on the Instagram. But it's not colors that I necessarily find attractive. And tartan isn't necessarily the pattern that speaks to me. And then I wore it with my jacket and I just loved how it looked. Mhm. And it's my favorite scarf.

Amanda: I know you wear scarf all the time.

Marco:  I just love it. I just love how it looks. I feel like it goes with everything. It's very fall. And uh, it's one of my favorite things that I've gotten in a long time. So thank you.

Amanda: You should tell my mom that.

Marco:  I should.

Amanda: I Don't think you have told her that.

Marco:  No, I haven't told her that.

Amanda: I will say, uh. Yeah, I need to just say. I feel like I've said the word literally a lot today. And I'm actually actively trying to embrace the new version of definition of literally.

Marco:  Oh, what's that?

Amanda: Well, a few years ago, people were using it a lot to mean really kind of the opposite of what it means because it's the opposite of figuratively. Right. But often you'll say, uh, you literally wear it everywhere. Well, you don't wear it everywhere. You often wear it, but you don't literally. You actually don't literally wear it everywhere.

Marco:  Oh, so I figuratively wear it everywhere.

Amanda: Yeah. But actually, a few years ago, I believe I'd have to look this up to verify they changed that because everybody was using it in the vernacular in the way that I've been using it in today's episode. So they actually went ahead and changed it, I think, in, like, Webster's Dictionary, to also mean the opposite of what it means. Isn't that interesting? So now I'm trying to just embrace it and just say literally all the time like everybody else does.

Marco:  Oh, that's interesting.

Amanda: Yeah. It's just a little thing I'm going through. But, yeah, patterns. I mean, when I hear patterns, I'm not necessarily color patterns. I'm thinking about pattern patterns. Like looking for patterns, looking for numbers.

Marco:  Oh. See? And I was thinking of, like, tartan or paisley or, like, actual patterns.

Amanda: Yeah. Which makes sense because we're talking about colors. But I always look for numbers on a clock or numbers. Uh, 11. 11. Or, like, 333, um. Or, uh, 42. The meaning of life, universe and everything, if you're a Douglas Adams fan. So those are ones that often I kind of connect with. And it almost feels to me like somebody's, like, sending me a sign saying, you're on the right path.

Marco:  Right.

Amanda: Do you feel that way?

Marco:  No, not really.

Amanda: Really?

Marco:  Not with numbers. I just know I like my number and that's it. Okay. I don't put that much. I literally don't push that much.

Amanda: You literally don't. Patterns in the universe, I guess, is more what I was thinking. Finding the patterns.

Marco:  So I was looking at maples. Just to go back to pattern. No, because I'm gonna weave in maple patterns. So I was looking at 17. I don't know, some magazine, online magazine had 17 maples to have in your home or on your property.

Amanda: Oh, okay.

Marco:  But they had the Norway maple. So I was like, I don't trust this. But then they had.

Amanda: It's like the Chilean sea bass of the tree world.

Marco:  Yeah. You should not be eating Chilean sea bass.

Amanda: But a lot of people still do.

Marco:  I know, but I. I do want. This is not about Marco telling you what to do or what not to do, but don't eat Chilean sea bass. It's being overfished. But I will say this. There's a maple called the snake bark. Maple.

Amanda: What?

Marco:  Yeah, because it has. Its bark has kind of a snake snakeskin kind of pattern to it.

Amanda: Is it like a mangly maple? Like, I feel like this would be like the. The black sheep of the maple world.

Marco:  No. Look it up on your phone while we talk.

Amanda: It's.

Marco:  It's actually really pretty. The bark is really pretty. Although the leaves I didn't find to be that pretty. And so, um, I had never heard of that tree before. And then I saw it in this magazine.

Amanda: What about a Japanese maple? Those are.

Marco:  I love them. They're beautiful. They're beautiful. They're stunning. They're elegant. If a tree can be elegant. I think all trees are elegant, really. But there's something very delicate and whimsical and light and artistic about it. And, I mean, the color of the leaves is just.

Amanda: I don't think I'm a fan of the snake bark situation.

Marco:  Why is that?

Amanda: Eh, uh, it's fine. I think we can do better.

Marco:  But it's an interesting pattern. Well, I'm not saying, uh, for a tree in our backyard. I'm just saying.

Amanda: I'm just saying in the world of maples, I think I was really. When you said snake, I was picturing, like, this sort of, like, slithering maple. It's just a tree, but the bark looks like snake ish as much as any bark does.

Marco:  No, you're looking at a wrong image. I saw an image where it looked really cool. No, you need to get a closer up image of the snake bark.

Amanda: This one? No. Oh, uh, okay. Well, I don't know. I was just a little disappointed. By what? You really trumped up that snake bark. And then I looked at it and it just kind of looked like a tree.

Marco:  No, no, I saw. It's like, really green and cool looking. I'll put a picture on Instagram.

Amanda: Types of maple.

Marco:  Well, we're getting to the last part of our episode, Amanda, so I don't know if we have that much time to walk into the types of maple.

Amanda: Oh, there's a lot of maples.

Marco:  There's a lot of maples. Lest we forget the sugar maple, one of my favorite maples, which is sort of the maple of Canada, which, when you look at our flag, that's the leaf that's on it.

Amanda: Hm. Hmm. Yeah. Syrian maple is quite beautiful.

Marco:  Oh, is it?

Amanda: Yeah, look at that with this sort of reddish. It's a Middle Eastern maple. Beautiful.

Marco:  Oh, it's gorgeous. Not what you would think of when you think of maples.

Amanda: The keys on the Syrian maple are red.

Marco:  Gorgeous.

Amanda: The leaves are green, but the keys are this gorgeous.

Marco:  The leaves look like Aspen leaves.

Amanda: Rust color. Oh, that's gorgeous. That's a beautiful tree. I'm sure. You know, we don't want it in Canada because that's what they did with the Norway maple. And look what happened.

Marco:  Exactly.

Amanda: Here we are chopping ours down.

Marco:  Well, we didn't chop it down, Amanda.

Amanda: Uh, we gave it a beautiful haircut.

Marco:  Well, uh, we gave it a little bit of. A bit, um, of an amputation, but it's healthier now.

Amanda: Uh, it got a haircut kind of like buzzed on one side and longer on the other. It's become a. It's kind of like the skater kid of the block.

Marco:  There you go. Well, uh, I guess we'll end with that. Skater kid on the block.

Amanda: Skater kid maple. We'll add, uh, that to the list.

Marco:  Oh, people would buy that.

Amanda: Skater kid maple.

Marco:  Do you remember when there was this.

Amanda: It's a maple that kind of leans

Marco:  to one side kind of little bit, you know, half cocked.

Amanda: Grows well on ramps.

Marco:  There you go. Amanda M. Thank you so much. What a. What a, uh, what an interesting dive.

Amanda: What a journey. I mean, we went to Ottawa today.

Marco:  Manitoba, Norway. We did it all.

Amanda: Syria.

Marco:  Yeah. Thank you for listening, folks and listeners. If you're still awake listening to us. Thank you. And we hope this made you feel more relaxed and we also hope that you will be able to listen and sleep.