Goodbye tree

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So hot and humid today......
way too hot for my studio....
so I spent the day on the computer at home.
but at 5.30pm, watching a huge rainstorm heading our way on the weather radar on the net,
I stepped outside for a breather.
gale force winds swept in out of nowhere, snapping the 100year old tree in front of my house.....
crack..branches spinning like a propeller...split vertically through the trunk.

I was lucky I was not standing there.

I was lucky my car was parked in the driveway....
I thought the roof of my house was going to explode off!
I just stood paralysed as the tree cracked and fell.

....normally on hot days I park under under its shade.

and a couple of houses down,
another glorious tree snapped like a twig, barricading the road.

in the park, more damage.



the line of destruction...straight through to my house!


then as fast as it arrived, the sky lightened and the wind and turmoil was gone.

lots of excitement...
lots of state emergency workers with chainsaws and maniacal grins.

sad for my tree...it will have to be removed.
sad for me with nowhere shady to park! 

and sad for the possum that used it as a freeway link onto my roof, where he'd run thumping and jumping and galloping at 2am in the morning. heh,heh,heh! 


 there's always an upside!







                                     Jo  x










                                                                                                                                                                    .

Elevens

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                          today at 11:11.11.11.11

Remembrance Day marks the anniversary of the signing of the Armistice which ended the First World War (1914-1918)

Each year Australians observe one minute silence

at 11am on the 11th of November

in memory of those who died or suffered in all wars and armed conflicts.

The Shrine of Remembrance  and Eternal Flame 
Melbourne

A favourite memory from my schooldays is hearing the 'Last Post'

played over the loud speakers, as the whole school fell silent for 1 minute

at exactly 11am on the 11th of the 11th.

and knowing that at that exact, precise moment,  a single shaft of  light

was passing over a stone set into the floor of The Shrine in Melbourne ,

inscribed 'Greater Love Hath No Man',  with the beam of sunlight

illuminating the word 'love' at precisely 11am on the 11th of the 11th.

Every year, just once a year.

across the road from home, there is a park with a magnificent old pine tree

grown from a seed brought home by a soldier after the Battle of Lone Pine,

Gallipoli.

I'm always touched at the way humans refuse to lose the memory of the past,

and of humanities desire to honour the memory of those who are gone.

it's a beautiful, heroic, proud old tree.....

    ......it's a fitting tribute.

                                     It's a fine place to remember.....



                                                                    Jo x

11:11am  11-11-2011

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