Tag Archives: trunk

Sawn Off Trunks

While walking through Washington Arboretum, we passed where a couple of trees had been taken down.  It looked like it had been done very recently because the remains of the trunk where it had been sawn off still looked very fresh.  The texture of the cross section caught my eye and I figured a view straight down with the light from the side picking out detail was the best angle.

More Logs Than the Average Beach Has

Taking a day off on a sunny day is such a lucky break early in the year.  Getting good weather is not guaranteed.  While my main goal was getting some Growler flying at Coupeville, when I had some spare time, I went down to Fort Casey and wandered along the beach.  The beach there has a ridiculous number of tree trunks that have washed up over time.  I don’t know why they end up here but, given how far up the beach they are, I assume the storms force them in this way.  Even getting past them to the shoreline requires some effort.  The almost endless number of them is quite amazing.

A Tree Trunk Supporting Sea Life

The Pacific Northwest shorelines are strewn with tree trunk.  Whether they have been washed in to the see or are strays from the logging business, doesn’t matter.  There are tons of them everywhere.  This one was on Cannon Beach.  I have no idea where it originally came from but it had washed up here at some point and got quite established in the sand.  The surface of the wood had become the home of a multitude of sea creatures.  It was festooned with them.  I wonder how much they depend on it staying there or, if it gets washed out again in the next storm, they would be in trouble.

Fungus and Rings of the Log

This tree trunk had been cut a while back.  I was interested to see that some fungus was growing on the cut surface of the wood.  However, there was clearly something about the outer rings of the wood that provided nutrients to the fungus that the older wood inside did not.  The growth was focused on the outer rings only and there was absolutely no fungus on the inner layers.  I wonder what the reason for this was.  Any suggestions?

Twist and Break the Trunk

This one is quick.  A tree has broken and the trunk – not a very thick one – had not only broken but twisted as it fell.  I was fascinated by the shape it took and the way in which the fibers of the wood had distorted as it fell over.  It showed the inner structure of the tree in a vulnerable way which is obscured when the tree is intact.

That’s a Big Log!

Seeing logs on the shore is not unusual.  Plenty of logs get washed ashore.  However, when taking a walk along the beach at Shoreline over the holidays, there was a tree trunk that had become lodged on the water’s edge.  It had become wedged in amongst some piles in the water with the roots of the log still out in the water.  Usually the logs appear to have been cut but this was a tree that had got washed out into the sound.  Everyone was taking a look at it or climbing out on to it.  It was pretty big and finding a way to convey the size was something I pondered at length.

Beach Driftwood

Wood on the shoreline is usually pretty interesting from a texture perspective.  Spending a bunch of time in the water getting beaten by waves and any other debris in the water tends to smooth out the surfaces and also emphasize the flaws in the structure of the wood.  I saw a bunch of wood on the beach at Shoreline when walking along the shore there and one in particular caught my eye.

Coin Tree

C59F2066.jpgI’m not sure whether to categorize this as in interesting oddity or vandalism. While walking in the Lakes, we came across this tree. At a distance I thought it was an interesting type of bark but, once you get closer, it is clear that the tree has coins jammed into the surface. I have no idea how or when this started or even why it did. Obviously, a lot of people have jumped on the bandwagon and now there are so many coins embedded in the wood that I couldn’t see the point of even trying to estimate how many there were. Instead, we just checked the whole thing out and then went on our way.

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