"Imagine if one of these trees fell on your house," said a visitor one day, his head awkwardly tilted upward, his face screwed up like a man facing into a strong wind.
"I'd rather not make such comments within their range of hearing," I replied, trying to lighten the moment, thinking all the while of the bad taste of my neighbor's remark.
In truth, it has occurred to me, usually when the big trees are in the grip of a high wind off the sea – or during those uncomfortable hours when we are brushed by a hurricane. The first time I experienced that, I was standing by the kitchen counter looking up through the north-facing windows and saw three of the truly old ones swaying so far off the vertical that the possibility was brought home to me they might be in trouble.
But they weren't. Richard O'Mara, for the full article, go here.
The last hurricanes we had here blew quite a few trees off their course. Everywhere one looked there were tree branches, debris, uprooted trees, and bits of leaves. Some streets were not navigable because trees were felled across them. Even so, a friend lost trees in an ice storm. Clean up took both our areas forever. Looking out now, here, you'd never believe what it looked like a couple of years ago.
A neighbor's palm tree, pretty much uprooted, was braced for a while and took firm root again, even centering itself better than the brace had done. At first it looked like it would just continue it's downward path or need this huge brace forever. In the aftermath of the storms another neighbor and his son pushed a jacaranda tree back to more or less center, and it too re-centered itself more firmly and is full of flowers this season.
I think there's a lesson there for lives amidst the trees. Can we center ourselves more perfectly after a storm? Is it possible to once again feel life is lush and full?
I'm always grateful when a tree has the good sense to fall on an empty car, rather than one with occupants, or falling on a house dents a roof, but not the people.
I sit here looking at a neighbor's magnolia tree, which sheds its leaves at the most inopportune time, peppering our yard, not hers, with hundreds of leaves that blow about in the wind, but has glorious, waxy flowers nearly year round.
Isn't it amazing how trees take carbon dioxide and make oxygen? I think I need to be more open to the wonders of the universe. Divine alchemy!
For ye shall go out with joy, and be led forth with peace: the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree: and it shall be to the Lord for a name, for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. Isaiah 55: 12-13 KJV
A few months ago I was gifted with a naked stick, stuck in a rather large plastic pot. I was told that a branch from this tree would root quite easily. I wasn't sure at the time if this wasn't too much responsibility for me. I was unable to plant it for weeks and weeks and wondered if it were truly dead and I had killed it. What water it got was from infrequent rains. Then a week or so ago, it sprouted leaves to my amazement, and I knew it was time to get it in the ground. Now or never. It was planted a bit cockeyed, but has centered itself upright. Frangipani flowers will cover it, but I don't know if it will be this year. I look forward to it!
It reminds me not to give up on people or situations that seem quite dead. There may yet be life in them to grace our days.
Do you have any interesting tree stories?
Karin
Originally posted 2007-06-20 21:09:08.
Related posts:
- Trees, part 5 Canopy Quest I'm not surprised to find more about trees -- this time in an article about climbing trees by recreationists. I don't remember ever climbing any...
- Trees, part 4 As sometimes happens, when I begin to think of something, it shows up in many places. Last night we watched an episode of Planet Earth...
- Trees, part 6 Skyscrapers of nature: ‘Wild Trees’ I wasn't surprised today when I found, while looking at something else, an email I had saved that linked me to this book and article....
- Trees I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree... ...only God can make a tree. ~Joyce Kilmer, "Trees," 1914 The trees...
- Trees, part 3 …a divine dimension of life I thought this was one of the most beautiful metaphors/examples of the divine spark that shines through us all. I hope you enjoy it like...
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
No interesting tree stories, but I enjoyed your post a lot.
I kinda prefer trees to flowers: they seem like a primeal force of life and full of their own character. Their circle of life is amazing to behold.
When I was a kid, a big tree fell on both our cars. They were a Volkswagen Camper Van and a Volkswagen Bug, the latter shipped back from Europe after my parents’ trip there the year before I was born. As I remember my parents pretended at least one of the cars was still viable for awhile after that (if you knew my parents this would not surprise you!), but it really was pretty much the end of Volkswagens for us. I think it was the end for that tree as well, though this was a forest so it wasn’t all that sad, just a normal part of life in the woods. The tree was an oak, I think, one of dozens of kinds of oaks in the Kansas City, Missouri area. Many other trees also, and since my parents were biology and science teachers, I knew them all. There are so many oaks that you can hardly go out the door without stepping on a squirrel–okay, maybe just an acorn. But squirrels were so ubiquitous that it was really funny when we had an exchange student from Austria. Not many squirrels in Europe, in fact they have special national parks that are designated “Squirrel Reserves,” so the whole first month she was with us, Eva would scream out in excitement every time she saw a squirrel. My sister and I, of course, as jaded youth, thought she was nuts (pun claimed, though originally intended).
-Andrea
Hahahahah….we have a squirrel, or a few, who traipses across the screen of our pool. It doesn’t bother me, but it does bother another member of our family, who will remain nameless, LOL!
I remember caring for a baby squirrel that fell out of a nest when I was a girl. I don’t remember now how we got the squirrel back to nature, but it survived.
I have many fond memories of being in a Bug.
Ah, squirrels! Twice in my life we have had sqirrels inside the house. Yikes! When I was a kid, living in the same house in the woods in front of which the tree fell on the VWs, we had sqirrels in the attic. And then they chewed through the ceiling (yum, asbestos!) and one of them fell through! I don’t remember that part, but what I DO remember is what my parents did about it: they put a piece of wire screening over the hole–and just left it there! We could totally hear the squirrels then, and see them sometimes scampering over the hole! It is any wonder my house is at all inhabitable, after this sort of example, lol! I think the squirrel problem was eventually solved by a snake moving into the attic! I think it was the snake’s idea, too!
Later, in graduate school in upstate NY, a squirrel came down the chimney. And it was terrified, of course. It kept bouncing off the walls and leaving sooty marks. And my first efforts to save it made it more freaked out. Eventually I opened all the doors and kind of gently herded it out.
Oh gosh, that’s a funny story! I’ve had a black garter snake in my kitchen, some snakes on our porch (and one that looks like a coral snake, but isn’t)over the years and an alligator in my garage. That was enough!
A friend’s daughter-in-law woke the other night because a frog landed on her. It’s funny when it isn’t you!
I was chased by an alligator in Florida when I was 3. Everyone else kind of laughed it off, but they were a lot bigger than me, and thus less appetizing! I KNEW it was coming to get me, so I climbed the picnic shelter!
Also on that trip to Florida I was bitten by a cute little penguin (not a native inhabitant, obviously). They make the penguins seem so cute and sweet in the kids’ books, but they are NOT! The zoo should at least keep them away from direct contact with small and brainwashed children!
We get lizards in the house here every so often. And I once rescued a friend from an alligator lizard or “LIZARD THING!!!” as she called it. To be fair, she had just had an appendectomy a couple days before and was drugged up. I was talking to her on the phone, but she lived across the street, so I came and rescued her by catching the lizard. Then out in the street I ran into some boys and offered it to them and they just looked at me like I was crazy–sheesh! what are they doing to boys these days-refusing lizards!?!
That’s funny! I had a friend who visited who wondered why we had baby alligators around our pool — they were chameleons. I called animal control and shut the alligator in my garage. They said it would snap a broom handle in half at that size and make a serious dent in a mental handle, because all the strength is in the closing motion.
I have to say seeing the crocodile take down a grown wildebeest (not sure that was the animal) was definitely unappetizing in the Planet Earth series. I could have done without seeing it. Especially hearing how long the animal struggled. I would not want to come closer to one than the zoo.
OTOH, my neighbor has one in her natural pool (not to swim in) that goes between it and the water hazard across the cart path. I’ve told her about it and I hope she gets it out.