I was taking an afternoon walk amongst the gums yesterday, spending a few moments escaping the challenges of the day, allowing the coolness of the dappled shade to wash over my worries, when all of a sudden, I heard a mammoth crack overhead and a large branch plummeted to earth, spearing the ground just near where I had been moments before.
Walking in the woods can be deadly!
Apparently, excess temperatures like we had this week can cause wilting and or drying of branches. As water percentage within the tree’s cells drops, it causes the branches to weaken and fall off without warning. Large heavy branches are normally the first to go!
Trees always need to release excess moisture through the leaves when conditions allow just like humans need to sweat through the skin.
However, humidity and heat in summer can limit evapotranspiration thus causing the tree to retain moisture. This causes rotting, weakening, and disintegration of branch tissues leading to collapse.
Trees reactively shed some limbs as they run out of resources in a bid to consolidate and preserve water by reducing consumption and evaporation through leaves.
For all animals, molting is the process by which they get rid of or shed old feathers, hair, or skin to make way for new growth. Birds molt on a regular basis to keep feathers fresh and change their coloring. Mammals routinely shed their winter coats to grow their lighter weight summer fur that is not as heavy.
At some point the reptile needs to molt or shed its old skin in order to grow new skin that is bigger.
And we humans also shed. On average, an adult human sheds approximately 500 million skin cells per day!
It looks to me like all of nature is designed to discard the weight of old things to make way for new!
Marie Kondo has created an empire around shedding! Discarding, downsizing, jettisoning the detritus that has accumulated around us, in order to live simpler, more freely, making room in our environment and our minds.
Maybe 2024 is your year to let some things go? Slough off the old skin as it were, and embrace the days we are given lighter and more alive than ever before!
We are always trying to simplify process here at Havenwood. In our own lives, for our clients, and in new and creative ways!
One of the new things coming for us will be Havenwood Stays!
We are working towards our own eco-tourism retreat, on our farm, where you will be able to try a slice of tiny life, sit on the verandah and breathe in the views all around you.
We believe a company should always 'walk the talk', so by investing in this new venture, we will be able to help those of you who might be thinking of a tree change and looking at ways to fund a rural adventure!
We are excitedly planning, there's talk of on-farm workshops, events, and other collaborative ventures.
Let us know if there's something you'd like to be part of, or what types of workshops you would be interested in attending!
Blessings
Shani
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