Celebrating an old oak
One year in pictures — the life of a backyard giant
By Matthew Carroll
A giant oak dominates the skyline from my backyard in the West Roxbury neighborhood of Boston. It’s actually my neighbor’s tree, and it’s beautiful. It’s branches twist and climb upwards and outwards, with an amazing breadth. It’s survived blizzards and heat waves for … how many years? One hundred? Two hundred? Maybe more. For all I know, it was a sapling when John Hancock scrawled his signature on the Declaration of Independence.
But it’s not going to last forever, either. The tree doctors gave it a hard trim a year or two ago, cutting down dead and half-dead branches. At that point, I decided I wanted to make a record of this great tree, to document one year in its life. So here are my pictures, starting in March 2014 and continuing through this February. (FYI: I shot the pictures with my iPhone 4.)
March … and days are still short
April, and the first hints of spring
May and spring is here — finally, some green
June, and lazing in the sun
August, and cicadas are singing
September, and the nights are cooler
October, and the leaves are falling
November brings a touch of snow
December means Christmas and a still, hard cold
January: new resolutions and the first big storm
February, more huge storms, and end of the story…
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Matthew Carroll lives in West Roxbury and works for the MIT Media Lab, where he runs the Future of News initiative. He often writes about hackathons, such as a video news hack in New York or an Al Jazeera-sponsored event. He can be followed @MattatMIT. He writes fiction under the name of Sean Patrix.
My blog is here.
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