Improbable

I seem to walk through the Arb at approximately the same time every morning - somewhere between 6 and 6:15 - so I always get to enjoy morning light. Now, as the days get longer, I’m walking after sunrise and while I enjoyed watching that, I love the light when the sun gets a bit higher in the sky. And I love the progression from dark mornings to now.

Speaking of morning light, today I was struck by the light and contrast and texture on this most improbable of trees, the Dawn Redwood. I’m far from being an arborist so forgive my non-scientific understanding. The trunk is thick at the base and tapers quickly as it rises; it has delicate needles. 

What I learned recently was that this tree was thought to be extinct, visible only in fossils, until the 1940s when some were found in China. The Arb was instrumental in disseminating seeds and grew the first one in North America in over 2 million years. Talk about improbable!

Maybe you knew this but it came as a big surprise to me as a new resident of the area. Here’s where I got my info.