Monday 8th March: A tree out the front

Some friends gave us a beautiful gum tree recently in remembrance of Salome. The info said it would grow to 5 or 6 mts, so it was hard to work out where to put it. Matt wanted to plant it out on the verge, but I was hesitant because we get a lot of walk-through traffic after the nearby pub shuts, and we get some drunken destructive tomfoolery from time to time. But on Friday we discussed it and I agreed to planting it on the verge. The soil is very clayish there, so Matt dug a very big hole for such a small tree and poured in bags of fertiliser to give it a decent start. It was a relief to get the Salome tree out of it's pot and settled in.

It didn't last long. On Saturday morning we got up at 6.30 am and Matt found the tree already uprooted and lying on the grass, with it's stake next to it. I felt sick seeing that tree. I think Matt felt more angry. He talked to a few neighbours about what had happened, and Tanya (next door) urged him to plant it in again, even though it only had about a 1 /3 of it's root structure left. Matt did an early morning run to Bunnings. By the time he got back, the neighbours had talked to a few more neighbours, and a couple from across the road came over to help Matt build a cage around the tree with chicken wire and 4 stronger stakes, with some bits of sharp wire added to hurt anyone who tries to rip a stake or the tree out. It took them ages. I think this incident has touched a vigilante nerve in our quiet little street. We don't know most people on this block, but word has got around that our baby died, and people don't want to intrude but they are keen to help. It was lovely to get support like that, unasked, at 8.30 am on a Saturday.

However, the tree is dying. Saturday was hot. We went to our friends' for lunch and came back, I went to the cemetery and came back, and the tree looked worse by the hour. On Sunday it looked just as bad, and today is no better.

I am finding it upsetting. It's hard to know whether the tree is dead yet, but I think it soon will be (even typing that makes me feel sick, it's too close to the bone). To have something sort of connected to Salome, dying in front of our eyes over a few days, and it's so wrapped up in stakes and wire we can't get to the tree at all. I see it every time I come home or go out. We don't need to be forced to watch something die at the moment. It feels yuck.

I'm going to source another one of these trees, and we will plant the live one as soon as we can. When I walk past the dead / dying one, I tell myself "It's just a tree. It's not our baby. It's a tree."

My pleasant distraction for the weekend was a videoclip I saw on Saturday for a song called 'This Too Shall Pass' by OK Go. When they sing 'Let it go, this too shall pass" I found it strangely comforting. I thought later I hadn't liked a videoclip that much since that one with the 4 blokes dancing on the treadmills. It turns out it's the same band. The girls and I have watched it a few times, and they like trying to spot the instruments.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJKythIXAIY

I think this has been done in one take?

There is another excellent clip for this song at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=qybUFnY7Y8w

One take from one camera again? I love it.