To be present at a scoop is a newspaper man’s dream. My lucky strike has no photographic evidence because as I’ve said before it’s unsafe to prowl these woods with a camera; bushwhackers abound. Therefore, you’ll have to take my word for it that the following happened.
The remnants of Hurricane Katia battered our shores inflicting widespread travel disruption. Trees are always vulnerable to storm weather. Too big for their boots they are brought down to earth by nature at its most violent. Many are the tales told by ordinary citizens of their all too close experiences with falling behemoths of the woody plant variety.
The worst of the weather was over, though there were still some cursory cut-your-face-in-half blasts of wind chilling the air. As I was slightly late, fate decried that I take a short cut through a wooded area. It was almost as if time had stood still, there was a complete and utter lack of sound, something strange was about to occur. To my right I saw a tree, obviously weakened by the effects of the cursed Katia, totter on its roots. It staggered like a drunken man then slowly toppled over ripping its trunk to pieces and collapsing to the ground.
Good for you, you might say, trees are felled naturally every day. There was only one shocking difference that made this particular timber extraordinary: the absence of any noise. The tree fell silent as a feather. I had witnessed the bizarre topographical phenomena called Acoustic Shadow. Wind currents had shifted the dying call of the tree out of my earshot. I saw this tree fall in the woods but I never heard it. I never photographed it either.
Boadicea's Chariot 
I know the feeling, a mate of mine fell over in bar once, I didn’t hear a thing, he was standing next to me the one minute on his back the next, coincidence? 😉
Hello JW, I just have to ask the question, why couldn’t you take a photograph? Regardless of the eerie story you’ve related, a photograph of the wind blown aftermath, would have been good to see.
It just proves the point that a falling tree makes no sound if it is not observed. In this case it was obviously unaware of JW’s presence.
Hello Val,
Quite simply I don’t carry a camera with me or a mobile phone. I keep my phone in the car for use only in emergencies. Moby’s are one of the worst things ever, IMO: gab, gab, gab, text, text, text. Nup, technology’s not for me.
Soutie and Zen. double 🙂 🙂
Gotcha, JW
Decreed or decried, that is the question!
Oh no, not again!
What’s red and not there?
No tomatoes. 🙂
The other night upon the stair
I met a man who wasn’t there
He wasn’t there again today
I wish that man would go away.
Haunting lines, Bearsy. 😉
Sorry, I had over indulged.