Oaks in repose, oaks battling for life

Typical California.  While driving a country road outside of Atascadero, CA to deliver bird netting to a vineyard customer I saw these two beauties just a few hundred yards from each other:

Survivor.

(Click to enlarge)

 

Recliner.

(Click to enlarge)

 

California is laid back and mellow.  And California is a hardscrabble battle for survival - to pay the rent, buy food, pay for insurance... to balance the state budget.

I - with the type of personification I mock and ridicule coming from others - see both of these reflected in the oaks I see on the golden California hillsides I drive by every day.  

I see oaks which must have had huge, spreading crowns that were long since lost to lightening or rot still standing, their massive boles sending out one or two pathetic limbs in a desperate attempt to cling to life.  And they do... for decades.

I see oaks on hillsides that just seem as though they just plain got tired, and decided to lie down for a nap.  And never got up.  I see so many of these beautiful, reclining oaks that I'm thinking of doing a coffee table book on the subject, Oaks in Repose.  That will scream to the top of the NYT Best Sellers List I'm telling ya!  Publishers, call me.  We'll do lunch.

Valley/California white oak (Quercus lobata).