1.) I've begun reading about a second 'major' Olympian god (the first being Hermes, see below). Artemis is a goddess who holds the deer and the cypress tree dear. Not knowing what a cypress is, I looked it up and came to this point:

There are three trees classified as redwoods, all of them under the family Cupressaceae in the subfamily Sequoioideae: yes, the three redwoods are Sequoiadendron giganteum (Giant Sequoia, Sierra Redwood, Wellingtonia or Big Tree), Sequoia sempervirens (Coast Redwood), and Metasequoia glyptostroboides (Dawn Redwood). The sequoia! This is Artemis/Diana's sacred tree!

The one we have the most of in Victoria would seem to be the Giant Sequoia, the Sequoiadendron giganteum. I had asked Jarrad about a tree that looked like a sequoia but was different: must have been the Coast Redwood?

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And next I discovered that what I've thought are cedars, which are in the family Pinaceae, along with pines, spruces, larches, douglas-firs, firs, golden larches, and hemlocks, are actually cypresses! Yes, what we call cedar here is a cypress and not a cedar at all. The Western Red Cedar and the Eastern White Cedar are two examples of cypress trees. (The Eastern Red Cedar's a juniper for goodness sake!) I feel so cheated.

This means that what we call cedars are also sacred to Artemis. (Also, just for kicks, the juniper is also a cypress.) (Also, I don't know if Artemis likes cypresses as they are categorized by science, or...?) (whoa.)

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