The Cork Tree. Leitz Summicron 35mm V4

Over the  last couple of weeks, I have been observing fellow Blipper, Janko's fine use of mono in his images from Sweden, taken with his Fujifilm camera.Today, quite cold, and utterly gray, mono already, seemed like the perfect opportunity to see what the relatively-new Panasonic GX9  could do with a mono scene.  I had some time to visit one of my favorite places in all the world:  Harvard University's Arnold Arboretum.  Nearly 40 years ago now, I shared an apartment in Jamaica Plain with two roommates, just up the street from this wonderful place.  Regular visits made me very familiar with the sections allotted to the different families of trees.  Along the main avenue from the gate is where the Manchurian cork trees live.  Back then, there was a massive exemplar with long, low boughs parallel to the ground.  Despite the big sign displayed forbidding climbing on the trees, kids loved to scramble up to sit on that bough, so much so that the cork bark was quite worn away.  This was the tree I thought  I was photographing today....  While chatting to a nice lady in the main administration building, I learned that the tree of my memory had had to be felled.  Apparently, one day, so many kids were all sitting on the bough at the same time, that it broke off from the trunk, depositing them all onto the ground.  Fortunately, nobody was injured, but the tree's damage was severe, including to the main trunk.  The arborists felt it was wisest to take it down.  Back in my archives, I have photographs from about 1986 of the old tree.  I shall find and scan for presentation here.
A word about today's photographs:  As I was about to press the shutter for the main Blip, I saw, out of the corner of my eye, a couple approaching with their dog.  I decided to allow them to walk into my photograph, a tip o' t'hat to the master, Henri Cartier Bresson.  My Editor felt that the Extra was the most dramatic of the series, but people always add interest to a photograph; the couple had to have the main spotlight.