Wood splitter

I split a lot of wood, and when I'm working on stone walls, I'll occasionally have to split a rock or two. But this birch has certainly surpassed my best efforts. While I don't ever attempt to tackle boulders, the birch doesn't appear to have had the slightest bit of trouble cleaving a very hefty chunk of granite. To be sure, it had help. When the last glacier receded more than 10,000 years ago and dropped an impressive load of large rocks, the hill it created was topped with enormous rocks. This one must have had a fracture that allowed water inside. When the liquid froze, it expanded and exerted pressure, opening up the crack bit by bit every winter. Wind- and water-born soil started to accumulate inside the opening, and when a birch seed, perhaps carried by a bird, entered and germinated, well, what started as a little fissure is now a big crack. No doubt there's a metaphor in this, but I'll settle for a picture.