Jeremiah speaking strongly about God: ‘ The Lord is the true God, He is the living God, and everlasting king: at His wrath the Earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not cope with his indignation… He has made the Earth with His power, He has established the world by His wisdom…the gods have not made the heavens and earth they will perish… (then something stronger) Every person is brutish in their knowledge: every founder is confounded by their graven image: for their molten image is falsehood, and there breath is in them…they will perish.’ Jeremiah 10: 10-15. ( Sandy’s summary. Interestingly written in full).
We cycled from the Muncipal Camping ground at Taninges along the Giffre river to Morillons with its blue lake. It was 15 km there and back.
Do trees have a sell by date, a use by date,or an expiry date?
All through the wooded areas as we have travelled I have seen them.
All the other trees have leaves and needles, army green or emerald green, and fluorescent for the new ones
BUT
Some stand alone in twos or threes or even in a much larger group.
No needles,no green.
Nothing!
Do we know their sell by date or when they expire?
By
Sandy 🥲 ( A note by the author. I wrote this before I found out!)
This is what I have found out for the pine trees I have noticed. It is the pinewood nematode ( Bursapheienchus xyiophilius), a microscopic worm causing severe dieback. How was this spread? The circulation of volumes of wood and bark after the European fires of 2017, when there was a high demand for wood chips as composting and mulching, this was one cause among others for the spread of the pinewood nematode. A report for 18 October 2023 states that an alarming 670,000 hectares of trees are now dying of various causes that is 4.1 % of the forest. This is equivalent to the total area lost to fires over the last 35 years. If you would like to read more press on the link below. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/environment/article/2023/10/18/in-french-forests-mortality-up-80-in-ten-years-and-massive-dieback_6182945_114.html
I now wonder what natural process destroys the worm so we can use the wood safely? Maybe someone already knows.
I was sad about the trees but look at the water. A pleasure to hear and be near. Children were playing in it and adults wading.
Here are two contrasting thoughts:
‘ I touch the future. I teach.’
Christa Mc Auliffe
And
‘ We steal if we touch tomorrow. It is God’s. ‘
Henry Ward Beecher. He also said this:
‘ Love is the river of life in this world. Think not that you know it who stand at the little tinkling rill, the first small fountain. Not until you have gone through the rocky gorges, and not lost the stream; not until you have gone through the meadow, and the stream has widened and deepened until fleets could ride on its bosom, not until you have come to the unfathomable ocean and poured your treasures into its depth…not until this then can you know what love is.’
The Giffre river is 46 km long and if you would like to enjoy a few moments with it. I made a short video. The colour the movement and sound make it a refreshing slither of time.
Take care,
Sandy 🙂