bark

I'll admit that until recently, I hadn't given bark a great deal of thought, unless it had lichen on it, or unless it provided a useful way of identifying a tree.  And then I was asked to write an afterword-chapter to a volume of essays on Surfaces, and thought - well, I'll consider bark.  (final copy-edits sent off yesterday!).  Now, of course, I look on it both as a substance that's both part of a tree, and that can be separated from it; something that has an extraordinary number of uses - both practical ones, and as a metaphor.  I think bark may be finding its way into the book ...

This tree surface is very striking: one of several similar trees on Griffith Park Boulevard, it belongs to the Californian Pepper Tree (which inevitably isn't native to California, but was imported by the Franciscans when they wanted something shady for their missions, and quite probably didn't ask the locals what they habitually sat under). We have one of these in the back yard ... I realized today that it has the potential to grow a great deal taller than I'd ever previously contemplated.