Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Ruby Tuesday and Tragic Tree Tale Continued

Maryt/The Teach over at Work of the Poet has something called Ruby Tuesday which features red. I hope nobody minds if I combine Ruby Tuesday with an update on the tragedy of Mother Nature's fit of pique last weekend. One of my beautiful pine trees was struck by lightning and pretty much split in half. I was very lucky that it fell relatively benignly across my back yard, didn't catch fire and did no harm to anyone or anything other than one of my other bushes. I'm praying very hard that the remaining half will survive. It's getting reiki at least twice a day and lots of fervent wishing on my part. Removing it would cost the equivalent of of about 1/11th of my total yearly stipend, so financially it would be a disaster, but if it dies I'll have to take it down as it would become a threat to my neighbor's pool and work shed. Above and beyond all that, though, I love that tree and I hope very much that it will survive.

Here is a before/after shot. You can click on it to see a larger version.

This is the scar from the lightning strike....


I'm very lucky that one of my neighbors is cleaning it up for me. He works for a lumber yard so he borrowed the boss's saw. He didn't ask for any money but I gave him a little bit and will try to give him more over the course of the summer. It's a HUGE job. This is only about 1/3rd of the trunk portion after he sawed it into pieces. The branches alone - with a few pieces of log - filled two pick-up trucks.


The Town of Hancock is great in many ways. If you call them, they will drop a pick-up truck like this one and leave it overnight to be filled up. So far we (well Shawn, my neighbor) has filled up two trucks and he and I both estimate that it will take three more at least.

Notice that the truck has these big red lights... part of my Ruby Tuesday offering this week.

One up side of the tree tragedy is that birds seem to be drawn to the corpse. My yard has had a pair of cardinals and a host of other birds who are now hanging out in great numbers by the chopped up trunk and branches. I wish they would come a little closer... or that my camera had a 15x zoom instead of ten... Still, I'm enjoying watching them and getting even these sort of fuzzy pictures of them. Besides being beautiful, Mr. Cardinal here is part two of my Ruby Tuesday offering.


Have a lovely Tuesday.

20 comments:

Gemma Wiseman said...

A very sad but beautiful posting. I wish you well with your tree. Trees are just so precious.

Anonymous said...

The red cardinal goes so well for Ruby Tuesday :)

Carletta said...

Wow, that lighning sure did take a piece of your tree. I'm so glad your neighbor is still cleaning it up for you.
When we lived in Virginia and went through a hurricane I remember how many trucks of debris we took out of our yard and how much the city picked up. It is a huge job - your neighbor must be a very kind and considerate person.
Those red lights on that truck are pretty. That seems odd to say; but they don't look like ordinary truck lights and have a deep red look.
Your cardinal is wonderful too. I sat today and watched a pair at my bird feeder kissing each other - honest it was so cute.
Great Ruby Tuesday finds.

RW said...

Wow that was a close one! Good Ruby Tuesday to you!

Linda Murphy said...

Poor tree! You followed up with such a cheery cardinal, enjoying his spot on the broken trunk.

Barb said...

I understand completely how you feel about your tree, Raven. I can't stand for any mature tree to be taken down. It was actually painful for me when I had my mighty oaks trimmed in Florida. They did look gorgeous afterwards. I try to tell myself it's a haircut! hahaha!

Odat said...

Awww.. What a shame. But hey, that's nature. And look at the surprise she showed you! The cardinal!
How great is that!

Peace

Dianne said...

the cardinal is amazing, I think he's telling you it's all OK

my favorite shot though is the one spot of red tailight in all that green. the composition of that shot is beautiful and touching.

Karen Coutu said...

Love the last photo! It's not easy to capture photos of birds without startling them.

marcia@joyismygoal said...

that was on HUGE Pine tree they do not grow that big here in TX-- i so love the pine tree-- i also LOVE your cardinal I posted one on Monday too-- good luck on your tree I hope it lasts and good post

ellen b. said...

Wow Raven, it's amazing the power in lightning to do that to that huge tree. I hope all goes well with the clean-up and that the other part of the tree survives. Love the red you gleaned from this event :0)

Ladynred said...

so sorry about the tree! The cardinal is beautiful and perfect for the TR.

Askew To You said...

I'm very sorry about your beautiful tree. I hope that the rest of it ends up being okay.

You have a lovely yard. That bird is beautiful.

Julie said...

Oh...it is so sad when a tree comes down. I'll bet that was a loud crack when it got hit. Good tie in...sharing an important event with the RED tail light!

Thanks for visiting me!

Andrea said...

The red cardinal is gorgeous. Great capture of the red tail light too. It is sad when trees are damaged like this.

tt said...

Awwww, I'm sorry you lost a hunk of that tree. I adore trees and hate to see Mother Nature rip them up. Our area lost thousands of trees last December when the ice storm got us. A lot of people have replanted but it's imposssible to replace 50 to 100year old trees.....like yours. They're so majestic and would have so many stories to tell...if they could ;)
I agree w/ Deanne...I think the cardinal is sending you a colorful greeting to cheer you. Happy Tuesday!

tt said...

oops! that was supposed to say 'Dianne"...fingers aren't so nimble today...too hot!

Tink *~*~* said...

I am very sorry that you lost your tree but I love the fact that Mother Nature has sent you some birds to cheer you. Beautiful cardinal!

Tink *~*~*
My Mobile Adventures *~*~*

maryt/theteach said...

Oh, Katherine, I'm real sorry about that tree! What a job to remove the part that came off... I do hope the tree will survive. Great combination post! Happy Ruby Tuesday! :)

Anonymous said...

Very sad about your tree but love your Cardinals - the 'corpse' is being put to good use!