Old Man Tree

12 Apr 2006

I've posted a few images of bark before. Probably because I've always been a bit of a tree-hugger. And because I like macros of interesting textures.

This was from my recent Botanic ramble, just before I ran out of space on my memory card and went home. I passed through a quiet, shady patch of trees and came across this majestic and very old looking tree. He gave off a calm atmosphere, a sense of being a nice, old, and patient tree.

He looked that bit older because his bark seemed to be weathered, stained, and peeling. But not in a diseased way, just in a natural way that says it's normal for the tree (I think). I liked the deep saturated tea-stain colouration, intermingled with deep almost burnt tones. And at the same time the scraggly lines of the bark reminded me of dark, scraggly hair. All in all, it just felt like an old tree, an old man of a tree.

I patted him, bid him good day, and went on my way.

- As an aside, I remembering being told once of an indian tradition. When it came time to chop down a tree in order to make a canoe, the carvers would prepare a suitable tree by telling it what they were doing and why. Then, the axe would be swung to make the first cut ... but just before impact, the axe would stop and the carvers would suddenly run through the forest in search of the real tree they should use, a tree which had been utterly shocked in sympathy for the first tree. This second tree, which had died from the shock, would be the one they would use instead. - I'm rough on the correct telling of the tradition/legend, so if anyone knows it better please let me know.

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