Be the rain

The dreaded red bands.

I saw one on an elm the other day that was  marked with a 58″ diameter.  And now the emerald ash borer has officially arrived in St. Paul. The ash was a favorite replacement for the elms that came down in the 1980s. Losing so many big trees has such an enormous  impact on the feel of the city. Less shade, less sense of enclosure and fewer song birds, who rely on the protection of a high, broad and healthy urban tree canopy.

I even had to call the city to report that the maple on the boulevard in front of my house is diseased and dying from maple wilt. Was told it would take a minimum of one year to tag and remove the tree and stump, and only after that could I request a replacement tree.

When that time comes you better believe I’ll be on the phone asking for more trees please.

Nothing says summer like the sound of cicadas.

An ocean full of rain drops will eat the rest of this hill some day.

Land isn’t much of a match for water in the end. The oceans have a volume of somewhere around 310 million cubic miles of water. I’m tempted to do the math and figure an estimate for the number of rain drops that might be, but I don’t think the numbers hold any meaning at that point.

Makes me want to do a posting on sedimentation some time to balance things out.