Here is the stump of significant proportions at the edge of the creek running into Mary's lake. It lived a long, tall and productive life, and even though being bare and white for years now, still has produced a brood or 2 of red-bellied woodpeckers each year. Late last summer in a storm the top half came to the ground, breaking at the point where the woodpeckers had been nesting in the spring. The woodpeckers had been drilling there for a number of seasons I am sure. Not sure where they will go now, maybe just further down the 30 foot plus stump. How the lower branch has survived so long- don't know, but it has a lot of character with 2 bare branches heading in opposite directions from a dark stump of a former limb.
Today I actually pushed my way to the base in the swamp to see if I could tell what kind of tree it was. No such luck. Usually when a tree grows this tall and straight isn't it because it is surrounded by other trees forcing it straight up. That may have been the case here 40 years ago before the dam was raised and topped with the sidewalk that winds through the park.
This drawing was done totally with Sharpie markers on a small sketch pad as I stood on the trail last October. There is also a pencil drawing done at the same time, and a watercolor that I did later, both of which I will try to post in the next 2 days.
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