When 1000 years old you reach, look as good, you will not

The other day we had some pretty strange weather. It snowed and that was followed by strong winds. Down in the ancient Japanese city of Kamakura, a sacred tree that stood for more than a thousand years was toppled. I visited it this weekend and almost half the courtyard was cordoned off with large screens put up around the fallen tree.

A large crane was hovering over the tree stump, and much of the tree had already been cut up and stacked against the back of the courtyard on the left hand side of the stairs. The stairs to the shrine itself were blocked, so anyone trying to go up had to use the side stairs.

It's probably sacrilegious to say, but those pieces of wood would make some very nice tables.

I've been raising 3 avocado trees on my porch, and while I don't expect them to live 1000 years, with good care they could possibly live longer than me. I bet the guy planting the ginkgo tree didn't really think about how long that tree would stand there. Maybe he thought forever.