Still driving from Raleigh to Houston (we drove ... honest!), we simbly had to stop at the (great) Smoky Mountains. Heard, seen and read too much about it to drive by and not pay homage. While the Mountains are very pretty indeed, the following two pics are quite horrifying ...
The Balsam woolly adelgid (a bug for us engineer types) is pretty much eating away all the fir trees in these parts! All the white trees in the pics above - are dead! gone ... finito ... chole gacche - khallas! ... thanx to this bug! And if you're thinking that for once us homosapiens did not have a role in damaging nature ... think again. This stupid bug grows only in Europe and was "introduced" in the U.S. somewhere in the 1900's ... the poor trees had never been exposed to this creature and hence are defenseless! Dang it! And there are more of these immigrant bugs wreaking havoc - theres also the Hemlock Woolly adelgid.
Point to ponder - Wonder why these painful creatures have such difficult to remember names ... it might be easier to spread awareness if they were called "Balsam killer" or "Hemlock destroyer" or the likes ...
'Smokies terrorized by the Balsam killers' ... hmmm - me thinks that would hit the spot!
I pondered a bit on the shamelessness of man and whether we deserved to exist ... ... ... and then moved on ...
Moved on to capturing some of the fauna ... and flora in the mountains ... took my mind off things!
Apparently this log cabin is one of the oldest ever - very nice to see how they lived back then ... we took a walk in the woods behind and spotted a couple of deer ... but D was not too impressed with the cabin ... she insists that her place in Kittane is older and prettier! well ...
1 comment:
I know it is obvious but good pics.
Slightly disappointed with D for making that comparision. Everything should be beautiful in itself, it is not the fault of nature or that loghouse that the West exaggerates it's beauty in the brochures.
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