Furrowy

I respect worriers, our present times prove that those pain in the arse types who sit and wait for the other shoe to drop are usually onto something. Of course they weather more severely than the happy-go-lucky, it's for similar reasons that people with children die younger than the childless, according to recent research.

The bark of this old Littleleaf Linden near the riding circle in Prospect Park, the one with a forest of suckers rising out of the ground around it so it looks like it's splashing down to Earth, shows how much the structure changes with age. Do the trees worry? Do they worry about us tender, often misguided, difficult humans and the havoc we wreak? Do they witness the troubles we make for ourselves as we struggle against our vulnerability?

I imagine they do. But that doesn't explain the bark, which grows to suggest a thick-stroked crosshatch.