Second Fig Digression

This is the same part of my garden. A few days ago someone came over and said "did you know the tree is dead?". The next morning the Chainsaw Man came over, cut it up and dug it out (revealing a hidden staircase under the roots, but that's another story.) The fig tree is gone.

A few years back Julia, already in her 90s, went to the orchard to pick plums. People used to say that this generation of people was just sturdier, but I'm starting to think my great-grandma was a fig tree.

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a giant foot-shaped snail with a house on its back. the house is still in construction, with a big crane towering above it The image is a stylized black-and-white illustration. In the lower left corner, there is a small, cozy-looking house with smoke rising from its chimney. The smoke, however, does not dissipate into the air but instead forms a dark, looming cloud. Within the cloud, the silhouette of a large, menacing face is visible, with its eyes and nose peeking through the darkness. The creature, perhaps a cat, appears to be watching over the house ominously, creating a sense of foreboding or unease.