(photograph © Kiwidutch)
Now this is probably the moment that you start thinking… “Wood is wood right? , Why is Kiwidutch getting all starry eyed and obsessive about blocks of tree?
There are billions of trees on the planet, so … um, … sorry Kiwi … but … …so what?”
Good questions all of them… in fact any artisans of wood amongst you might even be forgiven for the thought crossing your mind… “hey there are even more interesting woods out there too you know!“
Maybe this is a good time therefore to show you a plank… yes, (sigh, you can stop laughing now) I am serious …. a plank.
But as usual, since you are well aware that I like quirky things in life, this naturally, isn’t your usual run-of-the-(saw) mill plank…. in fact they had to first cut it up just to get it into the saw mill machinery. Here, in a simple, single plank I can only hope that your heart skips a beat and that you go “wow, that’s an amazing huge piece of wood, and how even more amazing is the tree it came from?
In the age when tall masted sailing ships built from wood were the latest thing in modern technology, it’s little wonder that early settlers and entrepreneurs in the lumber industry looked at these oversized trees with eyes that saw perfect shipbuilding material rather than as ecological wonders of the plant kingdom that were hundreds and thousands of years old.
They also lived in an age where pioneers “took dominion” over territories as they extended empire and that often came with a mentality of entitlement of ownership of the people and resources contained therein. In New Zealand “dominion” over the Maori thankfully didn’t really take place at all, but when it came to land, it seems that the only law that mattered after the sale was signed, was that of “supply and demand”.
I see this “plank” as a majestic testimony to a beautiful tree that was destined to outgrow and outlive many of it’s diminutive forest neighbours, the result of a seed and sapling that over 300 years later stood as a giant in the Northland bush.
Yes, I am in awe… is it really possible not to be?
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
(photograph © Kiwidutch)
