Friday, June 13, 2008

Last Week's Destruction

The heat last week resulted in several severe thunderstorms. Wednesday night's storm was particularly bad and the next morning trees were down everywhere. Our home is surrounded by three different roads and returning that evening I could see a tree had fallen across one of them; neighbors had cut their way out. Heading into the woods I discovered with horror which tree had fallen.

We had two remarkable trees on our property; one for its size and the other for its character. The one with character had grown right on the edge of the creek; half its roots in the dirt behind it and half creeping down towards the water. Some of the roots had wrapped themselves over a large, oval shaped boulder as if they were eagle talons clutching an egg; below that a small boulder, stood on its edge. It is one of the few places the creek usually runs free with the soothing sound of rushing water. We have a decaying cedar bench facing this tree and visited occassionally to enjoy the cool shade. Of course, it was this beautiful, precariously balanced sculpure that had blown over taking several smaller trees with it. I never took a picture of it in its glory, but you can see some of the root work in the shot below.


The oval boulder now looks a little silly balanced on the smaller one. I hope it's steady enough to last though.


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