On that day, the tree is as dry as it can be.

BBC: Stradivarius trees: Searching for perfect musical wood

As we trudged along, our surroundings changed from barren, stony outcroppings to dry pine forest to beech tree clusters to mucky, grassy, deciduous bogs.

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With a team of hired men, we dug for hours in the hot sun for the body of my father beneath a tree on a dry, wide African plain.

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The tree's heart should stay dry.

BBC: Stradivarius trees: Searching for perfect musical wood

Indeed, images of the dry, parched, arid, almost certainly lifeless surface of another planet lit up Twitter like a Christmas tree.

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