Treefall

Fallen tree blocks East Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, CA, February 4, 2019

Eucalyptus is a monstrously invasive lifeform in coastal California, rivalling grasses and human beings for the title of most thoroughgoing colonizer of its lands. Here, nudged by insistent winds, unmoored from the rain-saturated soils on the edge of Twin Lakes Beach in Santa Cruz, a giant one leans across East Cliff Drive.

Cactus Interruptus

Flowering Cactus, October, 2008

Today's Weather

A Hailful Afternoon's Worth of Winter Weather,  Santa Cruz, CA, March 5, 2017

Ex Post Shmooshaugh

Tree-Interrupted GMC Pickup Truck, February 2017

Smooshed

Tree vs. Truck, Santa Cruz, CA, February 20, 2017

Just a few houses away from here a 40-or-50-foot eucalyptus, bent by the ferociously windy day, gave, and, leaning, crushed a parked truck's cab, arching over the entire roadway, from front yard where it failed to front fence across the street, blocking the way with a 15 foot wall of foliage.

Eucalyptus Blocks Street, Santa Cruz, CA, February 20, 2017

It's laid there for a couple of days, long enough so that I'm going to have to find out what I need to do to help get it out of the way soon. I've just finished parting out our own leaner, a juniper inclined towards taking out the neighbor's roof, which the tree service left in chunks for me to deal with after they took it down a few weeks back.

I saw the juniper's great bulk listing farther to the west than it had ever done before one day, resting on a spindly gate post that it had never neared in the past. I considered the consequences of not doing anything about it, and eventually realized, late enough that evening that I couldn't actually make an immediate move but must wait until tomorrow to act, that it was essential to cast about for somebody to come by and cut down the poor tree before it found its own ruinous way to the ground. Most of my night's thoughts, substituting for restful sleep, turned toward such eventualities.

In the event the tree service came promptly and executed the task with dispatch. The consequences I'd spent the night rehearsing were averted, or, I should say, displaced a few houses over from the look of things.

Arbitrary Coastal Pine

San Mateo County, July 2014

One Way of Looking at Washington's Birthday

This Year's Peak Magnolia Came in February

Magnolias reached Peak Magnolia here in Santa Cruz earlier this week. Peak Magnolia happens when all buds that can be blossoms blossom. Usually this happens in late March, around the solstice, but after years of drought the local magnolias have responded to the wetness of the early part of this year's rainy season, over by mid January, with a quickened burst of early ripening.

Previous Azaleas

Edge of Entryway, Santa Cruz Home, April 2007

Downs Early Light

Arana Creek, Santa Cruz, CA, July 2015

Notable Tree

Arana Gulch Trail, SantaCruz, CA, June 2015

Looking South South West Or So

From the Trail at Twin Lakes, Santa Cruz, CA 2014

Woods

Base of Redwood, Henry Cowell Redwood State Park, 2013

Part of a Large Tree, Henry Cowell Redwood State Park, 2013

Untrimmed ex-Tree off Hwy 1

Between Pescadero and Davenport

A Tree With Complications

Coastal Oak at Home, Arana Gulch, Santa Cruz, CA

Noted in Passing

Flowers at the Fence

Trimmed Tree off Highway 1

Between Half Moon Bay and Santa Cruz

The Sort of Gate Previously Open Below Reopens

A Sort of Gate, Open

The Opening in the Open Gate

Test Pattern

Repurposing in the Age Of Mechanical Reproduction

Entering Magnolia Week,  March 2013

Not Not Rain Watch, Day 2

The Soggy Yard,  March 2012