Coming from a different direction, the “boo” tree offered a dazzling display of color, pattern, and texture, again set against a beautiful clear blue sky.
The “boo” tree from another angle
Tag: trees
On the walk
I’ve walked by this many times, but this day it caught my attention: burned-out (from the fire that deforested our dog-walk area) trunk of a pine tree. Charred outer bark, and inside the wood is disintegrating in rectilinear chunks. Huh?
Then, a snake. OK, just a snake – but no, the air was quite cool; the sun was quite hot, and the sky was blue dotted with puffy clouds, and it was lying still, almost into the sandy trail. We tried to keep the dogs from noticing it – and they didn’t – but because Syd and I stopped to look at it, three dogs came back, curious about the unusual human behavior. One almost danced on top of it, but amazingly none stepped on it. And still it didn’t move.
My best guess is it got to the side of the trail in lovely radiant heat from the sun, but when a cloud blocked the sun the cool air took over, its energy went away. I am not a biologist, much less a herpetologist. If you know more, I’d be interested to hear if I’ve got a handle on this.
It appears to be Lystrophis dorbignyi, or South American hognose snake.
Taking down a tree
This is time of year, the sound of chain saws is quite common. But a couple days ago, I hadn’t figured out that something more interesting might be going on until my wife spotted a guy with a chainsaw high in a tree. Only once have I topped a tree as part of felling it, but it was a pine, nowhere near this size, and swayed like crazy after the top fell. And I did it with a bow saw – no way was I climbing up a tree with a chain saw!
So here’s this guy up a 15-meter (I presume) ladder. All rather impressive. Listen for the guy on the ground yelling ahora! (now!).
I hired tree people a couple times when we lived in North Carolina. We had a lovely old spreading oak that needed thinning. The tree people – who worked at the Augusta National Golf Club – said they never use ladders, but only free climb, and also don’t wear spiked shoes, in order not to damage the trees. Quite spectacular to watch!
No worry about damaging the tree in this case. Also, being eucalyptus, it will regrow. And regrow.
Unlike the last time, this does not affect the sunshine we receive in our yard.
And a _________ in the pear tree
No, not a partridge. A pear. One and only one single lonely pear, which will be our entire harvest from this tree this year – if we’re lucky and the birds don’t get to it first.
Evening sky, looking east
I do love the sky here in Uruguay. Rarely polluted with aerial spraying so common in North America and Europe.
Those are our avocado trees — looking for a bounteous harvest this year, Hod willin.’
Boo!
The little things: baby paltas
Baby avocados: the beginning of our third harvest.
Baby orange — first time from tree #1:
Baby oranges — first time from tree#2.
This is what our avocado trees looked like in August 2015:
Note the large pine tree in the background to the right. It’s still there now:
The two little orange trees are front right. I had to transplant them from the country because wind and hard soil there were just too much. It’s taken them a long time to get comfortable here. Very cool to see fruit starting to form!
Treework
Amazing to watch tree workers in action. Yesterday (yes, Sunday) involved removing all the lower branches from pine trees at the house of friends.
Quite a show.
His brother removing an acacia that was leaning over the roof. Not a bit fell onto the roof in the process.
An old stump five meters high had a non-functioning light fixture on it. That was removed, stump cut down, and birds flew in to feast on the ants inside, mostly oblivious to me standing two meters away.
And another surprise: look at how the rings grew on that angled limb in the first two pictures!
I find it quite amazing that none of these trees has come down in severe windstorms during the six years the owners have been gone, but it seems much less likely now. And, a lot fewer pine needles to clear off the roof.
Pine from pine
Pine trees don’t regrow from stumps, unlike eucalyptus trees. But you wouldn’t know that from looking at this. Apparently a pine cone sprouted inside the rotting stump. How it fares as the stump continues to rot will be interesting to watch!
Mangos, sort of
A couple years ago, after one of their distinctly non-native mango bushes died, Syd and Gundy gave us the other. The first couple winters, I built a custom greenhouse around it. But it has never produced fruit. Sure, lots of flowers, and lots of tiny starts, then they simply disappear.
But this year, it has produced a few tiny, very dry, somewhat tasty fruits. As you can see, something got to a couple of them first. The lemon is normal-sized.
The mango bush/tree is completely uncontrollable, as was the anacahuita (small leaf shade tree) next to it that had become so ungainly that I cut it down a few years ago. After two years, a new shoot appeared out of the stump. I carefully pruned it, until one day it became clear it was not connected to the stump, and had virtually no root system. So I pulled it up and got rid of it.
I’m not convinced that the mango bush-tree is the best use of this space.