Day 170

April 22, 2020

Went for a walk today that took me into some areas of the neighborhood I had never explored. La Mesa is the northernmost street in Santa Monica. It’s isn’t very long but it’s lined with these beautiful trees that I am now obsessed with. They are natives of Queensland, Australia, called Moreton Bay Figs or Australian Banyan. They are a strangler species that uses other trees to seed, and once its seeds reach the soil it kills the host tree. Kind of a jerk but I’m willing to look past this behavior because the root system is just incredible. La Mesa has some truly remarkable specimens. Some of the roots are tall enough you can sit on them comfortably. One good thing that has come out of this twilight zone experience. I may need to start tracking these positives and focus on them more. Not sure how much longer this will go on, but I expect that I’ll be home most, if not all, of summer. In the meantime, I will keep visiting these trees and probably taking many, many pictures of them.