a chip off the old block

I have a thing about wood - the smell, the texture, the grain, the bark …… and the big leafy thing it grows on.

I’ve been making a raised bed in the front garden using what are laughingly called ‘sleepers’.  It’s a mighty small railway that ran on these.  They’re 100mmx150mm (or for those not yet metricated, 4”x6”) planks.  

This is an off cut and I rather liked the end grain - and the stories that it could tell.  I’m no dendrochronologist but on the basis of one growth ring per year, I’d guess the tree that this particular plank came from was over 50 years old when it was felled.  

The spacing of the rings says something about the climate over those years; wide rings means moisture and a long growing season, narrow rings mean drought.  This tree has seen plenty of both.  Sometimes when the summers are both wet and dry a tree can produce two growth rings each year.  Which is why I’m guessing the age - I stopped counting at 50 rings.

Next time you see a lump of wood don’t dismiss it as a thick plank - especially if it’s short and there are two of them - it probably knows more about climate change than the average politician.