Our favorite was the oldest, the biggest, and the most glorious of all in the autumn. The branches spread out evenly in every direction and the colours were beautiful. Age affects us all.
Gradually, it is living out its last years and rotting from within, with huge branches breaking off now and again. The woodpeckers have had their way with it, allowing squirrels to move in and birds to build nests in the spring. Life goes on...
With Blast standing beside the trunk, you get an idea of how old this poor old tree must be. I wonder how it escaped being logged when J.R. Booth owned the property...perhaps they saw something special in it even back then......
You can see all the woodpecker holes up in one area, and more branches getting ready to go. Each time we have big winds, I expect more to fall. We are careful walking past it, it is actually at the beginning of one of our forest trails, next to our storage shed.
It's sad to see it aging and all the stumps remaining where it was once glorious. However, it still leafs out and shows good autumn colours; it provides home for other wildlife and birds. When the goshawk is around, it perches on top to hunt. It would be really interesting to know just how old it may be, but we won't be cutting it down to find out.
