We went to visit the Advocate tree. We’ve known it for a long time. It fell down and died in the storm a couple weeks ago. All it took was the right wind and rain, and it toppled down, crushing everything in it’s path. It was over 1,000 years old, 300′ high and over 40′ circumference.

Can you see Banksy looking up at you? She was the first one to run down and see what happened, where the tree went.

For over 1,000 years, it did all right, tucked on to a slope near the creek, with a friend of nearly the stature just at it’s side. Why it picked this year, 2017, as the year to die, I don’t know. Don’t know how hard it tried to hang on, or if it even had a chance. I just know that it’s gone.

The forest evolves, trees die, new trees grow. The river changes every season. There are some things, though, that are never coming back once they’re gone. The tree grew during the middle ages, during holy wars between muslims and christians. Not sure what was there before it.  Now when we walk to its spot in the woods, heading down the hill towards the creek, we’re blinded by a huge burst of sunlight where before it was always dark. The silver lining, sun blindness and a tremendous pit where it’s roots used to be. I don’t know how that is a silver lining, but isn’t that what you’re supposed to try and find in a situation like this?