Kahlil Gibran once wrote” And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.”.
I don’t know if he was as good a gardner as a poet, but in our case, he was right. In our garden, we had a red oak and a mediterranean stone pine (or umbrella pine) planted ages ago far too close to each other, and in the end the oak lost.
We first spotted fungi blossom at it’s roots, and one summer, the ground was covered with acorns and seedlings, a desperate attempt at survival. Next spring, the leafs sprouted, but that was the final sign of life. In barely a month time, all the leafs had shrivelled, and we were left with memories only. Enter JeanDo our gardner, who expertly and carefully felled the giant in no time.
After that, the challenge was what to do with the trunk. A piece that is two meter long, and 50 cm of diameter represents easily 500 kilos, so better treat it with respect. Our neighbour Jean-Pierre luckily had a tractor on hand, so he could load the beast onto my trailer, heading for Christophe Truche’s sawmill in the village next door.
Two months later, I could pick up the pieces, beautiful wide planks, which made me a lot of friends at the AOB community workshop in Gaillac with whom I shared my beauties
The top slabs were interesting, so I thought to make something out of it. It ended up as a large turned bowl with an intriguing pattern of vertical rays and growth rings. Have a look for yourself, and try to figure out how it fitted into the trunk before.
