My Manchurian "Miss Kim" Lilacs put on quite a show this year.

Best ever, in fact.

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Last July, a large tree fell in the woods at the edge of our property. Quite loudly, in fact.

Last night, on the opposite side of the property, another one fell. This one was right outside the bedroom window, and it was really, really loud!

I assumed it was done by vines, the bittersweet and wild grape that so plague this area, as their first sneak attack of the season after a long Winter's truce. We're at war, and all night I plotted my own first strike. After all, I have a reputation to uphold.

Now I know better. It wasn't vines, it was an old, dead, very large tree that had finally rotted enough at the base to break and fall. It took everything out on its way down. This includes ripping an oak tree almost in half from top to bottom.

I've uploaded some photos with comments to my flickr area, showing the damage.

This afternoon I heard a very loud "crack!" followed by a staccato burst of smaller cracks. It sounded like fireworks, but it was coming from somewhere in the back yard!

I ran out in my bare feet to find the source of the noise. There was another great crack, followed by some rustling in the treetops, and I realized it was a tree falling in the forest behind the house. (The punny, corny jokes are zipping through my mind, but I will resist!)

From the sound, it was a very large tree, but I couldn't see it due to the density of the leaves between me and it. I returned to the house for shoes, and then went into the woods to find where it had fallen.

It was a large oak tree, perhaps 30 or 32 inches in diameter. At first glance it looked like a perfectly healthy tree had cracked at approximately my eye level, but a closer inspection revealed that the trunk had some serious issues: a large section had been scooped out by termites (I'm guessing, maybe it was some other wood-eating insect), and then something larger had made a nest in the hole. This weakened the tree, but didn't cause it to fall. What actually brought it down -- and this was no surprise at all -- was the large group of wild grape vines that grow mercilessly around here.

(The wild grape in this area seems to be working in concert with the Bittersweet vine. I hate them both, and that's no exaggeration. I'd have killed those that were pulling on this tree, if I had known about them, but they were too far into the woods for me to have noticed. It's enough just trying to keep up with those creeping in from the edges of the yard.)

Also of note was the smell. I love the smell of freshly cut wood, but I first noticed the rot by smelling it, unfortunately. The realization went something like, "Sniff... mmm, that smells good... oh yuck, it smells rotten."

Anyway, being there for the death of a large tree is such a rare occurence, I had to describe it. I'd like to believe that this leaves room for other, smaller trees to grow up in its place, but nothing will grow very tall unless the vines are dealt with first. They're evil.

The incessant spring rains were obviously very good for my lilacs, they were fantastic this year.

For a few years I've been trying to take a picture that fools you into thinking you can smell them -- remember that I only get a couple days each year to try -- and I think I've finally done it. You need to know what they smell like already, of course (my photography's not that good!), but if you do then check out the largest version of the last picture on my latest page of manchurian lilac pictures.

A flower shop between my house and the coffee shop had a sign out this morning that said:

Um... I'll just take 12 individual stems, if it's all the same to you.