For two and a half years, we have lived out here on what we lightheartedly call “The Ranch.” We have watched this one dead tree. With unceasing breezes and winds, we have figured it would lose branches or fall just any time. A woodpecker, who likes its holes, drills regularly right at its topmost point. In the springtime, he sets up a mate-attracting “Rat-a-tat-tat.” After each harsh weather event, we’ve looked out and found the tree none the worse for wear.
Imagine our surprise this last week when a tree that was only a few feet away, decked out for spring with its first decorative shoots, suddenly fell straight down to the ground. By all appearances, it was healthy, abounding in leaflets from cream-colored to a deep coral. We had watched this tree, too, but only in admiration. Who would have thought that the bark covered a rotten hole from the roots right up through the middle of the tree?
If Aesop were here, I am sure he could come up with a moral to this story. It might include hypocrisy, not being taken in by appearances, or warnings about rotten things that look good on the outside. If you want a moral, feel free to make your own. In the meantime, we are watching the other trees around “The Ranch” to see if we can judge which ones are most likely to fall by how far they bend in the wind since that is a constant here on Windwood Trace.
As for the woodpecker, he’s still beating out his love song – “Rat-a-tat-tat, Rat-a-tat-tat, Rat-a-tat-tat.”
