Exploring through touch

As I ran my hand over the trunk and thicker branches of the tree I noticed it was quite smooth, almost like very fine sandpaper. In some areas the older bark had begun to flake away and the texture of these pieces were crumbly and crunchy. The older bark that had flaked off was crunchy under my feet at the base of the tree. There were strange ‘knobbly’ bits on the thicker branches where it looked as though some branches had been pruned. Where the larger branches bent upwards, the surface of the tree was wrinkled like old skin.