During a walk through the New Forest, I came across this fallen tree. When a large tree falls, it is always somewhat surprising because the scale of large trees gives them an impression of imperviousness. Of course, they will all fall eventually. When they do, it seems like it is a big shock. The roots are still bound tight with earth and standing beside this gives you an impression of the scale. I stuck myself in there just for reference!
Walking through Lyndhurst one gloomy afternoon, my eye was drawn to an old building that looks like it is in need of some attention. The roof seemed to have become a bit of a home from some plant growth, and I was fascinated by what had got established. I wonder how much damage the roots have done to the structure beneath!
A walk we took through the New Forest brought us to the Knightwood Oak. The New Forest is an ancient forest, but this tree is older than many that are there. Supposedly, there were laws enacted long ago regarding the practice of pollarding trees. The fact this one was pollarded suggests it will have predated this time which suggests it might be 500 years old. That is not the oldest tree I have come across. Our travels in California did bring us to some extremely old trees too. I can’t recall exactly how old but possibly older than this. Even so, 500 years old isn’t bad for a tree.
I suspect if I had come here when I was young, you probably would have just walked up to the trunk. Now, the need to protect the tree means that an enclosure has been set up around it. The good news about that is that it keeps people out of many possibly photos you might want to take. (Funny how, when you are interested in getting photos, you are “focused” on different things to other people.) I had a wander around the perimeter of the enclosure to check out the whole tree before we continued on our walk.
Having been gone from the UK for a couple of decades, being back is reminding me of so many things that I guess I didn’t pay much attention to when I was here before. Now I am back, I notice things. One such thing is horse chestnut trees in the spring. More famous for the conkers they produce in the autumn, in the spring they flower quite dramatically. I’m not sure what the proper term is but I think they look like candles mounted across the tree. Very pretty looking blooms. How quickly will I get blasé about them again?
Two different places got me interested in this subject. When we were at Moraine Lake in Alberta, I saw a tree trunk along the shore of the lake that was stripped of its bark and showed a spiral pattern in the wood that was exposed. I was rather curious how this would come to be and took some photos of the log before moving on.
When up at Washington Pass a while later, there were some trees that were still upright but that also showed the same pattern of the wood. I wondered whether exposure to wind over time would cause the trees to twist, perhaps, resulting in this sort of pattern in the wood. Alternatively, does it naturally grow that way? Whatever the reason, it makes for some very interesting-looking wood. Anyone know how this happens?
In the glade down near the river in Bloedel Reserve, there is a tree that is super gnarly looking. The center of it seems to have been broken apart and damaged over time but the tree still seems to be doing fine. It looks very different depending on the angle from which you look at it. I think this could be the sort of tree that someone would incorporate in a fairy tale!
The road on which our office was located when I first moved to the PNW has some lovely trees. As fall gets underway, these trees can turn a lovely shade of red. They attract a large number of people that come to photograph them or photograph themselves in front of them. The favored spot for doing this is in the middle of the road and it is strange how unaware some of the people are that they are standing on an active road with cars coming either side of them regularly.
Most of the drivers know the area is popular at this time of year but some do get rather frustrated by the almost suicidal approach of the wandering photographers. I am a touch more cautious as I walk along the street. There is plenty of opportunity to walk out and get a shot and then retreat rather than just loiter in the way. I don’t think the trees were at peak color when we swung by but they certainly looked nice. Will I get back for a second look? We shall see…
Before we headed to Sproat Lake to find the Mars, we did a brief recce of the area along the shore where they were due to arrive the following day. At this time, we still had a plan to return to the island on the Sunday for the final touchdown of Hawaii Mars. I would later scrap this portion of the trip. However, we hadn’t got to that point yet. There were a few possible locations to try out and Steve had noticed a small park that led down to the beach, so we went to check it out. It was a lovely little spot and there was a tree hanging out from the land over one part of the beach that looked particularly cool. We didn’t end up returning but this could have been a nice spot to watch the proceedings.
A couple of years ago, when we redid our back yard, we planted a small plum tree in one of the beds. It has grown well and, last year we had a few small plums that developed. They all fell before we had a chance to pick them, so we had no idea whether they were any good or not. This year, we had a lot more plums as the tree has grown quite substantially. I picked one of them to see how it was doing, and it wasn’t too bad. It did have a split in it, though.
The following weekend, I decided to harvest the rest. One had already fallen, and I think I saw a rabbit having a good chew on it. The rest came off easily enough. Quite a few had splits in them which, from what we hear, is the result of them getting a lot more water than they have been used to. I put them all in a bowl to get a photo. For the first one, I put them all with their best sides up. Then I turned them to show the most damage. Selective angles in photos can really change the impression you give!!
The Pacific Northwest is not short of trees (and many of those trees are not short!) but they are often pretty regular looking trees. We do have some more twisted looking specimens for sure, but the UK does seem to provide a selection of aged trees that have developed some amazing shapes to them. One such tree was in the grounds at Hinton Ampner. I have no idea how old it is and whether this is the norm for this type of tree, but I thought it looked fantastic so here it is getting its own post.
