Didn't post yesterday due to busyness. No interesting dreams that night anyway. Last night, however, I did have a kind of weird dream, in that I met somebody in real life that I only know online. Weirder still, I met them while camping, which I've only done once, as a school field trip back in middle school.
I'm looking at the giant eucalyptus tree outside the window and wishing I could sketch it like Munin does for you folks. It is huge. Strange thing about these trees though, a ton of them got introduced into the Great Domesticated Desert of DoomTM way back when people were still a little naive and only cared that they looked good and grew fast. Turns out they have a couple downsides.
- Since they grow fast, they don't grow very deep. Result: when it gets windy like it is RIGHT NOW, they sway alarmingly and may even fall over. Like the massive one that is shushing around in the wind -- RIGHT NOW -- in my neighbor's backyard. Eep.
- In addition, at odd times, branches will decide to dry out and fall off. This doesn't sound too unusual and it isn't, except that these branches are a good deal longer than I am tall, and very high up, and heavy-looking. I have seen them obliterate a new redwood fence when they fall.
- They are flammable. Very flammable. As you may have heard in the news recently, the GDDoD is prone to burning up with roughly the regularity of the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano. I mean, fire is such a concern here that I have heard people propose quite seriously that arson be punishable with death.
- On a similar note, eucalyptus trees require a lot of water. And as I discussed two days ago, you simply cannot "be a WATER HERO!" if you have to turn the sprinklers on every hour.
- And for some strange reason, everything planted around them dies; in fact, if branches or leaves fall on the ground, they can kill plant life too. So the trees slowly develop desolate blast radii around them.
In short, a really silly plant to have here. But it does grow very big, very fast!
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Thank you for your gracious comment about my sketching, but really, it's just a matter of applying yourself. :-)
ReplyDeleteI have to say I don't think I've ever seen a eucalyptus tree in the flesh (or bark). I do, however, sympathise with you regarding the 'intruduction' of plants outside their natural habitats. In Europe there are many famous landscape gardeners of the 1800's that have a lot to answer for.