I gasped when I saw it the first time around. I circled again and there it was – or, I should say, wasn’t. A break in the rhythm of life. A snap in the storm. The heart of an ancient tree exposed. This stately tree, an elm I believe, more than one hundred years old, close to two, I’m sure, had been snapped by the wild, ugly winds on Tuesday night and took a few others down in its fall. I wanted to weep when I saw it, broken and tied with police tape, like a crime scene.
It is sad to see a tree felled by nature or man, isn’t it? I think it cuts to the core for many of us, like losing a trusted old friend.
I stopped to take a few pictures. For what? I don’t know. I just felt I needed to record it somehow. As I stood and clicked from different angles, a few cars stopped, as well as some walkers. Cell phones and iPods and cameras came out. Quietly, as if at a wake or funeral, they paid their respects. It was a sweet moment that probably played out many times over the day. Good folks in the center of a town without electricity, stores and governments buildings closed, the drone of saws and such cleaning debris, and children with parents, a cable company technician, a man in a suit, teenaged boys out for a ride in the car, a young couple and me, all performing last rites for the untimely death of a tree.
Penny, so sad at the devastation around us. Old trees that had witnessed more than we could even imagine………..living nature, ended in moments that “watched” delopments and roads built, commercial properties created and life as was once known over 200 years ago haulted in minutes.
Your story heartfelt! We were very lucky with only branches to pulled to the
curb. I hope you survived the storm well.
Oh, I know, Mary Anne. There are few streets in all these ‘burbs that have not lost some very old “friends”. I hadn’t thought about how they survived all the development in the area, especially over the past 50 years, only to be felled in a rush of wind.
Thank you. We survived with just a few branches as well.
Now, how about some sunshine?
How very sad to see such a venerable tree so torn apart. Nature can be so fierce sometimes. But how wonderful that people were stopping to mark that passing; I find this really touching.
It broke my heart, Juliet, but it was touching that people stopped. Nature is, indeed, as fierce as it is beautiful.
It breaks my heart to see an old tree go. I always think about the little world of living things that exist in and around that tree. I’m sure there have been many people who would see that tree and memories of playing under, around, or in it may come flooding back. There is so much history in a tree that is written no where else. It is sad, but when a tree goes, there is always new life around the site. (That is if people don’t interfere too much.)
I know, Janet; the nests, the insects, the shade, the memories. I love how you have put it. “There is so much history in a tree that is written no where else.” I think the site will remain well tended. Wilder Park is well used and tended and they are good at replacing trees for the next generations. Still, it is a big spot to fill.
everything on earth has a life span, it should exclude loved one’s, dogs and trees for a start…….how very sad
Well put, Debra. I couldn’t agree more.
A lovely post Penny. The photos do look like photos of a crime scene. I heard that storm was a doozy.
I know. All that yellow tape. It was quite a storm and it is so sad to see so many trees down.