During my morning hike I pass this old tree that stands out amongst the rest.
It's leaves are budding and it's still hanging on to life. From one side, the first two
pictures, it looks fine.
Then you walk around the back and see the extent of damage it is dealing with.
Looking at the last picture it's surprising how resilient it is.
Sooner or later I will walk by it and it will be laying on the ground.
It's a pretty good metaphor for all of us.
ReplyDeleteBeat me to it. Good for you.
DeleteNo surprise: the LEFT is rotten to the core.
ReplyDeleteI grew up on the edge of young forest that had been pasture until about the 1940's. Near the top of my hill there was an ancient white oak that was half dead that was likely about 300 years old. It dwarfed all the 20 y/o trees that had grown in around it. From miles away you could clearly see the crown rising above everything else on the skyline. In the immediate vicinity were the fallen remains of two other ancient oaks that were long dead and fallen over at some point. The hollow centers were cave like and you could walk inside for a few feet at a stoop. Down the far side of the hill were the stone cellar holes and forgotten wells of a long gone homestead, The cellar holes also had trees growing out of them that had to be over 250 years old. I pondered on how a colonial cellar hole could have such an old tree growing in the center of it. I concluded it was likely the case that the farm had been burned down during King Phillip's War in 1676 by the Indians and had not been rebuilt. It was probably either the Lancaster Raid or the Marlborough Fight, both of which were about 5 miles from the site in different directions.
ReplyDeleteAll of it was bulldozed, subdivided, and built upon while I was away in the Army in the 1980's.
That looks like an old burn scar. I have several oaks on my property, which burned in '94, that look just like that. In a couple of cases the scars face the heat they were subjected to as nearby buildings burned to the ground.
ReplyDeleteYeah I got a mighty oak standing in front of my house, if it fell over it would take my front porch with it. Still I can't imagine living here without it. I got historical land marks on all four sides surrounding me and that old tree was here before all of them.
ReplyDeleteWhile Washington was kneeling in the snows of Valley Forge this old tree was already a veteran forest sentinel. It will be a sad day indeed when it finally comes down.
Yes it is, my branches are sore as heck almost all the time anymore
ReplyDeleteThere is a spooky looking oak tree on the hillside here. The first 3 ft of trunk is 6-7 ft in diameter which then branches out into 7 trunks that are trees in their own right. At night you would expect something evil to emerge from behind it.
ReplyDeleteOak trees live a long time.
ReplyDeleteThey also die a long time.
Old trees are like wise people, good to have around
ReplyDeleteI grew up in Granby CT, there is an oak tree estimated to be around 450 years old. Truly massive
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the big old tree you took pictures of hiking behind the Sooper Sekrit Bunker.
ReplyDeleteYou still have that pic? That was a big one.
Leigh
Whitehall, NY
I have a very large madrone tree that looks like that. Right on the edge of the driveway and leaning over the pasture fence and hay feeder. It died two years ago, so I've got to take it down. It'll make a nice pile of firewood... after I fix the fence.
ReplyDelete