Two Big Ones

The Big Tree at Olive's
 

Sappho Rhodie, Copper Beech, Big Tree



 

The messmate tree, the tree behind the house central in the photo, is one of the oldest trees around here. It may not look it in the photo but it's huge at the base and splits into several trunks reminiscent of a giant octopus. Just about every day on my walks I pay homage to it. I think it would have stood well before white man came to this district and survived the frenzied axe and saw mill days because of it's poor form in terms of millable timber.


It began my friend Olive's demise, about 5 years ago, when it dropped a limb which clipped the corner of her house. Olive had some trauma dealing with her insurance company and the stress seemed to trigger her into dementia or paranoia, a deterioration that was rapid and culminated in heart attack and death, death which she had told me she would self inflict by not eating if ever she could not look after her one acre garden.

In the second photo, the big messmate central and in the background appears incidentally when today I took a photo of Sapho rhodie with copper beech foliage behind, an alluring vision in front of our carport. The big messmate in the background is a superb specimen, younger than Olive's by a good margin I'd say but imposing and a roosting place for the owls I hear at night.

Trees rule. We tamper at our peril. We will be gone. They will reign.