Way Too Much Gravity

It was yesterday at about 11;30 AM.  The weather was was sunny and calm. Not a leaf rustled in the stillness.  When the loud cracking sounds reached my ears, my first thought was of fireworks. It was not one big bang, but a whole series of  loud noises like the finale at the end of a fireworks show.  I have to admit I was angry at the thought since the sound was so close to the garden and the house.  When I looked toward the source of the sound I actually saw what seemed to me to be a gaping hole where there used to be a continuous line of tree tops.  I used to think that trees were permanent features of the landscape.  Living here has taught me that change can be slow, but it can also happen in the blink of an eye.

Today Ed risked life and limb to get pictures of the Red Maple tree that was responsible for all that noise.  The tree is large, perhaps several feet in diameter, and is growing on a steep incline.  Climbing that steep slope presented challenges for someone who is losing his sense of balance.  For some reason Red Maples send out branches perpendicular to the trunk.  When that branch reaches sunlight it turns and grows vertically toward the sky.  How can a huge unsupported mass like that exist for years?

Clearly there was way too much gravity pulling on the branches and leaves of the tree and 11:30 yesterday was the tree's breaking point.

A closer view of the broken branch shows the source of all that noise.  Every crack, every split and splinter of the wood as the tree branch fell to the ground made itself loudly heard.  It would be interesting to count the rings to see how long the tree has been holding that branch in the air like that but lumber jacking on that steep hill is not in our plans.  I am really happy that the main trunk of the tree seems undamaged.  So to answer that old question about a falling tree making a sound  I would have to say indeed it does and it sounds just like the fourth of July!