Visiting an Old Lady (with a bad surprise...)

On Saturday dec. 6th, the weather has been a very unstable. Rain in the morning, then sun, wind, rain again and so on. The Mountain Cimino has been always dark and sinister... But I've got no intention to stay at home.

I have decided to make my usual walk. This time, as pretext, I have decided to go and visit an old lady who I had not been visiting for years. This old lady is not a person but an oak. This is not a common oak but a majestic solitary oak who imposes her presence to the whole landascape around as only the solitary oak can do.

I have taken my lituus (sacred stick...), a long brim hat and a greatcoat...

Of course, instead of taking the direct road, I have chosen a secondary country road and then other secondary country roads after a series of crossroads through which I have made a very long tour in the country. The condition of these roads is quite good considering that it has been raining for long time.



Sometimes, it rains again: it is not a heavy rain and it makes my slow walk very pleasant just leaning on my lituus and zigzagging the puddles in front of me.

Rain and sun, sun and rain. The road is very silent and sometimes some traits of old stonewalls emerge from ferns.


While approaching to the place where the old lady lives, I have started to notice the presence of red and white fences for construction areas, excavations on the right and left sides of the road, deep tracks made by bulldozers... I have got a bad premonition...

The fields around me seem devastated by a meaningless savage fury: heaps of wastes, eradicated olive trees, excavations... I could not make a picture with my camera because it was very difficult for me even to recognize the place I have visited just few years before.

After a long walk along secondary country roads, this is what I have finally found...



Nothing remained of the old oak. In the middle of a closed area, having around excavations and construction wastes, only this cimitery stump remained. What's the sense of this action? Why cutting this oak? While writing this considerations, I cannot find an answer to these questions yet...

After the last rain, now the sun has appeared. I exploit the occasion to go back home through another long tour along secondary country roads. With these sunbeams, Mother Earth seems to give me however a sign of hope...



While walking slowly along the country road, I think to myself about the fate of many other old ladies I had not been visiting for years. Maybe it is better to do other long walks also to check their health status: I fear that some of them has already disappered...