Stress Leaving You Green? No Worries, SARATS Accepts All Comers

Another SARATS entry has arrived and this one is green! It comes from Kenny of Kenny's Blog of Greatness and his email explains:

Mr. Rantwick,

I had the pleasure of riding my bike around Washington DC (USA) last Friday, and hoped to get a good picture of a tree for your smackdown. It's been a strange summer here in this part of America, with extremes of hot, dry, and wet stretches. Adding in an earthquake and hurricane put many trees on notice. It was such an extreme summer that weatherman Bob Ryan said that when trees go through such stresses in one season, sometimes they just drop their leaves without letting them change color!

I don't know how true this is, but the trees I saw mostly had just dead leaves or were half bare already. So I took this great picture of one of the Japanese Cherry trees that surround the "tidal basin" area near the Jefferson Memorial (Thomas Jefferson, as you may recall, drafted the Declaration of Independence, had a slave as a mistress, and discovered penicillin (that last part may or may not be true)). Many of these trees are about a hundred years old and have seen a lot of action, as millions of tourists converge upon this area to bask in the glory of the cherry blossoms for a couple weeks each spring.

Yes, the leaves are still green, but the trunk and branches are so gnarled and twisted, I hope you'll accept this as an alternative entry for your SARATS competition.

I enjoy reading your blog.

Thank you and have a great day,

Kenny

 

 

 

See that? Kenny called me Mr. and said he enjoys reading my blog! In addition I had an outstanding Autumn ride last night after work, video with soothing music to follow tomorrow. Overall, these things are making me feel pretty damn good today and I wish you the same until next time.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

Trees. Oh How they Rock.

I am pleased to report that I have received two more SARATS entries! First, Cor from Life in 360 sent one with the following comment in his email:

I never thought I would enter a tree but I couldn't help but snap this one.  Ottawa River Parkway on a dark but bright stormy afternoon. 

Then Carolyn of Carolyn's Flight of Fancy sent me this one. From her email:

Well, as it's getting cold and the weather is changing (I swear that Winter is on it's way as it tried snowing the other day), I'll submit the photo of the tree by Nechako River on the Heritage Trail in Prince George [British Columbia].  I love biking that trail, it's my favourite in the area.  Lots of people use it daily. The trail follows both the Nechako and Fraser Rivers.  It's one of those awesome things about Prince George.

Things are shaping up nicely, don't you think?

R A N T W I C K