Story Info
Story Info
Sanda Hrzic
Brač, Croatia
2021
Type of Wounded Place
Story & Experience
First photo:
In the middle is a black hole of a burned old tree. A Long time ago, it was an strong olive tree, but a big fire took it away 70 years ago, (along with others too). My grandfather died and my father was not going there any more… The roots on olive trees are long-lived, and after a while new branches started to grow, but nobody was going there any more and it stayed as a little bush.
My father died and I inherited that piece of land. When I came there for the first time, it was all completly covered with pines…
it was all in big Alepo pines. That tree came on the island after the Second World War, first for tourism, but it’s not good for the land. It acidifies the Earth, and nothing can grow under it, and so it kills native trees. It is very invasive. Now we have it everywhere.
So those bushes of olive branches didn’t grow well under them. Slowly, I started to cultivate it, to take care it, to cut the Alepo Pines, and kept all the other trees there, including olive trees, but left of that bush, 4 branches to grow.
Yesterday I put around those 4 trees now (on each corner of the hole of old tree) the wool of some sheep that I found in the forest. In the middle of that hole I put a bit of algae from the sea that I found on the beach. And I found a branch of white flowers to decorate half of it, (as a moon is white in the night).
First photo:
In the middle is a black hole of a burned old tree. A Long time ago, it was an strong olive tree, but a big fire took it away 70 years ago, (along with others too). My grandfather died and my father was not going there any more… The roots on olive trees are long-lived, and after a while new branches started to grow, but nobody was going there any more and it stayed as a little bush.
My father died and I inherited that piece of land. When I came there for the first time, it was all completly covered with pines…
it was all in big Alepo pines. That tree came on the island after the Second World War, first for tourism, but it’s not good for the land. It acidifies the Earth, and nothing can grow under it, and so it kills native trees. It is very invasive. Now we have it everywhere.
So those bushes of olive branches didn’t grow well under them. Slowly, I started to cultivate it, to take care it, to cut the Alepo Pines, and kept all the other trees there, including olive trees, but left of that bush, 4 branches to grow.
Yesterday I put around those 4 trees now (on each corner of the hole of old tree) the wool of some sheep that I found in the forest. In the middle of that hole I put a bit of algae from the sea that I found on the beach. And I found a branch of white flowers to decorate half of it, (as a moon is white in the night).
Why this Place?
Brač, Croatia
This place was owned by my grandfather and father, and I inherited it.
Act of Beauty
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3rd photo is a grey-felty bushy perennial, flowers that grow from a very small hole in the hard rock, that I planted few years ago, tubular daisies, now is rare, even though before the Dalmatian Croatian Islands were full of tham.
4th is a A stone house that is there too. Behind it is a olive tree with wool.
Image Credit:
- Hrzic 1: Sanda Hrzic
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