Pulling Up Roots

about a 48 inch wide trunk, lifting the integrated
concrete/paving stone driveway up a foot, and
roots and other vegetation 7 feet in the air.
A large void beneath is just visible.
CLICK TO EMBIGGEN

 Tonight K-dog took a slightly different route than we have the last few months. Up a street that I haven't walked since I started cutting and splitting my own firewood. Which is not long. September or October. So, after muscling and cracking numerous trunks and limbs from Sandy's wooden victims, it was with a fresh appreciation for trees that I renewed my acquaintance with some of the most prodigious specimens in the neighborhood.

There are plenty of 60-70 footers around. And in the general area trees with diameters of 40 inches are not uncommon. The monster tree above, which belonged to a friend — 44+ inches across, it's root system towering above head high, and lifting up tons of driveway paving stones — missed grandma's house, but damaged another friend's chimney. Mercifully it did no further damage.

But look at that stump on its side! If a mere 16"x17" section (see below) weighs 100 lbs, that gigantoid stump easily weighs north of 3 tons.

16 x 17 = 103 lbs

16x17" of White Oak?

Suddenly it strikes me while walking under these majestic creatures, called "giant weeds" by some, that even a 30 foot 12 inch branch can weigh an enormous amount.

How do they hold themselves up without beams and struts, not to mention all those wet leaves and occasional ice storms. What incredibly strong sprouts these are.

So as I passed one such 45 inch wide behemoth on a nearby avenue that night, I marveled at it's foot high root systems tucked between the sidewalk and the road and how it had taken an elliptical shape 45 inches this way, but only 30 that way.

Before that, I'd just walked by them, or occasionally mountain-biked over their incredibly  gnarly and challenging roots.

Prefers to walk at night. Will take any available walk.

LIGHT OF THE MOON
I guess it's a paradox, but walking the dog at night is as good for clearing the mind, as it is for pondering all kinds of things. The sensory experiences of the night come in such a constant stream, despite the obscure vacuum of darness between the street lamps, that it's a tall order to get any actual productive thinking or meditation done.

I'll have to work on that. But the stream of consciousness is usually a stimulating one anyway, even if one whose clarity I seldom bring back indoors, with the dog.

Usually it all seems to wait outside until the next night-time walk.

And the dog waits inside for the same.