A Tree and a Wedding Ring

[Stephen Whiteside]

A tree and a wedding ring eh, Zondrae? What a coincidence. I was walking through a forest yesterday, and I came across a large dead tree with a gold band stretching right around its circumference down near the ground. Taking a few paces back, I noticed several other dead trees in the vicinity. Their size and spacing suggested the five fingers of a giant hand.

I couldn't get the image out of my mind, and made some enquiries at the general store back in town. Turns out I was right. Apparently if you dig down deep enough, the fingers join together into a giant wooden hand. Many years ago this was partially excavated, revealing a narrow wrist, and the beginnings of a forearm. By now, though, the hole was fifty feet deep! That's as far as the excavations went, and it's all filled in again since then. Quite a mystery, eh?

[Heather]

Ooooh, a mystery Stephen. Start digging, you might find the answer!

[Stephen Whiteside]

Mmm. You'd need quite a team of machines, Heather. Make a big mess. It's all national park. I don't reckon you'd get the permits.

[Vic Jefferies]

You sure you aren't talking about golden mushrooms Stephen?


Vic

[Heather]

I was speaking metaphorically Stephen!

[Zondrae]

Ok, Not really a can of worms..
The poem was about a beautiful young girl who used to sit in the shade of a tree. They grew up together. The tree fell in love with the girl. Now I'm not sure what happened in the middle but somehow the girl married and the tree began to die. She was walking past and saw the tree's state and went to give it a hug. She vanished. Years later when the tree was cut down and sawn up, they found a gold ring deep in the heart of the tree.

Now I may have warped the story line as it has been about four years or maybe more since I read the poem. It was beautifully written and I had the idea it may have been Graham Fredriksen. I must go and look through his books. I have two of them. I'll get back to you shortly.

[Dave Smith]

Stephen did you ever work in a foundry making water tanks? Like for The Furphy Bros.


TTFN

[Stephen Whiteside]

Golden mushrooms in the water, eh, Dave? That must be it.

[Dave Smith]

That'd do it.

TTFN

[Bob Pacey]

God knows what you might find if you kept digging Stephen, would be interesting to see though.


Furphy ???? Stephen does not make things up Dave and I'm sure he can tell us the exact location so that one of us can go and check.



Bob