Sad life and death of a tree.

[Charzes44]

October 2018.

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December 2021, following strong winds.

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The top half!

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April 2024. Natural regrowth.

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Today. Former site of sycamore tree.

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All that's left of sycamore tree.

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[AlwaysOnAuto]

This reminds me of a tree we used to have in front of our house in the parkway. When we moved in I wasn't very fond of it since it didn't allow the grass to grow very well in the yard. Once I got the yard to grow it became troublesome because of all the leaves it would drop, twice a year or so. Then I became wiser and grew to appreciate it for the shade it provided me in the yard. I could wash my cars on the lawn during the hottest parts of the day and have enough shade I didn't have to race the sun when it came to water spots on the paint. I really enjoyed that. Then I started working on cars in my driveway sometimes and it would lend itself to shading me during the summer months. It also provided a nice shade on our front window which looks west so sees a lot of sun in the afternoons. I'd reached the point where I had a lawn mower that picked up the leaves it dropped too. Some weeks I found myself mowing the lawn twice just to pickup the leaves, which also gave me a nice lawn to look at as well.
When the tree got a disease it became apparent it would have to come out from fear of it falling on the house if it were to fall in the wrong direction. I literally cried the day the city came to take it out. We got the city to plant a new one for us to take care of, but it's still got a ways to go before it's anywhere near big enough to fill the sky the way the old one did. It was tough loosing a friend of 30 some years.

 

[MoonMind]

October 2018.
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December 2021, following strong winds.
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The top half!View attachment 535640

April 2024. Natural regrowth.View attachment 535641

Today. Former site of sycamore tree.
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All that's left of sycamore tree.
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Thanks for posting this.

A number of my favourite trees have suffered heavily in the last couple of years: Storms, heat, draught - often in devastating sequences. One of them has lost its two biggest branches but is still persevering, but several others have either fallen or been removed because they didn't bear fruit any longer. In my farmer neighbour's orchard, almost all trees have lost main branches or worse. It's a tough time for trees ...

M.

 

[Richard]

This sequence of images reminds me of something which happened to a friend of mine while we were studying A-level biology many years ago.

Part of the coursework was to undertake a ‘tree study’ – we each chose a tree and recorded what happened to it over the course of a year. Every month we would comment on any changes, draw pictures of leaves or fruit, and put sections under the microscope and draw those. My friend Alan chose a tree right outside his house, planted by the local council in a square gap in the paving.

We all took pictures of our trees every month because that was easy and filled the file up nicely. Alan did this too, and took pictures of his chosen tree for several months until one day he came home from college to discover that the council, in its wisdom, had cut the tree down and all that was left was a stump about one foot high. Not knowing what else to do, he took a picture of the stump to go in the file.

The following month, the council returned and ground out the stump, leaving a muddy patch scattered with wood chippings. So Alan dutifully took a picture of that, too, and stuck it in his file.

I think the final photograph was of a new section of paving slabs where the tree had once been.

It was all rather poignant. Alan went on to study biology at university, so I don’t think he was too affected by it.

-R

 

[John King]

I came home one day in the mid 1970s to Mount Barker in the Adelaide Hills only to find that the local council had cut down the entirety of the Avenue of Honour, which acknowledged the ultimate sacrifice of those local people who died in WW1.

About 500+ meters of mature trees ...

All to make room for about 2 extra car parking spaces each side, which really weren't necessary.

Bloody ignorant vandals.
Fifty years on, living over 500 miles away, and it still makes me angry.

Avenues of Honour are a feature of almost every town in Australia, as are Anzac war memorials.

I usually stop or pause at them, and give thanks to those who gave everything so that we might live in peace.

At dawn, and at the going down of the sun,
We shall remember them.