Before it was yours

A backyard maple in Abbotsford came down about a decade ago. The owner cut it up and stacked it, not quite ready to let it go -- the way people do with good wood when they don't know what they'll do with it yet. It sat there until it came to me. It must have been a remarkable old tree. The blocks came out with everything -- deep figure in one cut, clean straight grain in the next, spalting running through others in dark branching lines. Sometimes all three in a single blank. A tree that grew long enough to become interesting in ways you can't predict until the saw goes in.