My First Picture

(1)

I had problems last week trying to publish one of my photographs, and I blamed it all on the software which came with the camera. I was later (sober) able to publish pictures as a test, confirming the previous tests I had done. Although I don't know exactly what went wrong, I now suspect that the problem was actually a quirk of Blogger. We shall see. I didn't actually publish the test photo in question because it was a bit too gynecological in nature, something I snitched from this outrageous woman. Standby...

Well, well, well! Nothing much here, just a tree with a gash in it. Right? Right. The tree in the foreground is dead, of course, but had to be included in the shot because I was reluctant to climb down into the Highline Canal (dry at the time) in order to eliminate it. So what is the significance of the tree? Is this a female tree?

The significance is in the gash, which was inflicted from above on an innocent tree, the result of a lightening strike many years ago. The current from the strike travelled along the trunk at the bark/wood interface. The heat generated by the current created enough gas pressure to blow away the bark, leaving a scar in the form of a gash. Over the years the tree recovered somewhat but was never able to cover the gash. I have, over the years of bike-riding on the Highline Canal Trail (pictured here) noticed many trees with similar 'lightening gashes.' I suppose that the reason for so many trees with lightening gashes has to do with the name, Highline Canal, which is a canal which follows a 'high conture' down from the mountains, and is used to irrigate lower- lying areas.