Oak Tree on Tree Appreciation Tuesday

 At this time of the year, when hedges have just been trimmed, it is possible to see for much further.  Seeing over the tops of the hedges or through hedges reveal things that for maybe just a few minutes as I walk catch my eye and make make me stand and appreciate their beauty.  Here in the middle of a series of fields stands a magnificent oak tree. It is not far from Wells, Somerset.

Because I stopped to admire the tree, to my delight I also found this large steel cattle drinking trough which I had seen several years ago, most probably one winter, but I had failed to find again, most when I was looking for it again, the hedge was so thick and covered with greenery, it was therefore out of view from the road side.

The iron and strong riveting just don't seem to be appropriate for a cattle trough, and I wonder whether it had an industrial past and once the industry had closed, the containers were repurposed locally?  Something I shall be looking into, or finding the person who can tell me.

I contacted our local Museum and I had the following reply: 

'I have been in contact with the museum’s curator David Walker about the cattle trough. He has been away the past few weeks, but he is now back, and he is confident the trough in your photo is a repurposed air receiver from a quarry. They were designed to hold air at low pressure to drive drills for making shot holes for explosives, he says, and became redundant when diesel powered compressors became available. There are more in the Doulting area that came from the nearby quarry also.'

Tree Appreciation Tuesday - Of myths and legends

In these parts do trees grow, around which myths and legends abound.  Many myths, legends,  and much speculation has grown up around a Hawthorne which grows in a stunted way.  The best information about this tree I found can be read on The Garden Trust Blog.

Crataegus monogyna 'Biflora' flowers in the Spring and then during the winter.  I would not say that the winter flowering is showy, to me it is as if it is just starting its Spring flowering early. 

Glastonbury Parish Church with The Glastonbury Thorn

I have read that neither cuttings nor seeds can be used to propagate the tree, and that it has to be grafted.

Flowers in January as well as haws from last year's flowers

Lichen and moss encrusted criss cross of twigs

I first wrote about  a similar Hawthorne two years ago, and for this week's Tree Appreciation Tuesday, I took pictures last week of the Hawthorne outside St John the Baptist, the COE Parish Church at Glastonbury. 

This particular tree just represents for me, the mystic and mystery which can build up regarding either one particular tree or a tree type or maybe a tree in a particular place.  It could be that a tree has particular meeting for just one person, a group of people, a tribe, the fact that trees enter the psyche of people is not surprising. The Glastonbury Thorn has been written about, and stories spun around it.  This is quite ironic given that almost all the specimens of 'The Glastonbury Thorn' are not likely to be more than a hundred years old.

Whether in ancient times or now, starting up stories which appeal, or entertain, has been of value to religious places, business and commerce.  From the Glastonbury Abbey webpage:

The Holy Thorn

Many believe that the Holy Thorn tree that can be seen in the grounds originated from the staff of Joseph of Arimathea.

By the 1530s, not long before the Dissolution of the Monasteries, three thorn trees grew on Wearyall Hill (sometimes known as Wirral Hill) about 1km south-west of Glastonbury. The trees were very unusual because they flowered twice - once in the spring around Easter, and a second time at Christmas.

Not surprisingly, they were seen as holy thorns. In the Civil Wars of the 17th century Puritan soldiers cut down the only remaining thorn because they saw it as an object of superstition. However, local people had kept cuttings, and it is from these that the thorn now growing in the abbey grounds is believed to descend. It continues to flower around Easter and again at Christmas.

The custom of sending a budded branch of a Glastonbury thorn to the Queen at Christmas seems to have begun in the early 17th century, when a branch was sent to Queen Anne, King James I's consort. A spray is still cut from the thorn in St John's Church yard and sent to the sovereign each Christmas by the Vicar and Mayor of Glastonbury.

The thorn featured on British 12p and 13p Christmas postage stamps in 1986.

Tree Appreciation Tuesday - Golden Weeping Willow

 What an enchanting tree and its  placement was inspired! 

The footbridge across the Bishop's moat, with the small island on which it is growing, allows for a glimpse right into the crown, and a walk right through the drooping branches.  

In the summer you are bathed in pale green flickering light, now in the winter you can pause mid way and appreciate the structure of the tree. Look up and there are long side limbs, and look down and the reflections equally enchant. 

I noticed in a couple of places where the long stems reached down to the water, they were growing roots and therefore it would be easy enough to propagate. If anyone has a large expanse of water in need of a tree, maybe some enquiries for cuttings to the Bishop's Palace may gain you a little piece of this beauty?

Once in 2020 the Swans nested on the little island and a board had to be put up along the bridge, usually the Palace Swans nest along the bank of the moat further along, but during this period when there were far fewer visitors to the Palace, and when so many places were closed, the Island must have seemed the ideal spot for Grace and Gabriel to build their nest.  I remember watching the webcam to see how the eggs and the young chicks were progressing.  The things we found to do during the Lockdown! The island is still a place for rest or preening for all the Palace's birds

There are so many wild willows growing on the levels not far away but this is a hybrid. 

Salix x sepulcralis var. chrysocoma

Cultivar origin

Golden weeping willow is a hybrid between white willow (Salix alba), which is native to Europe and Asia, and Babylon weeping willow (Salix babylonica), which is native to China, both of which have been cultivated for centuries. The first golden weeping willow hybrid dates to 1888.

Derivation of names

The genus name Salix is the classical Latin name for the willows. The hybrid name sepulcralis means of sepulchres, or tombs, and, like the common name, refers to the trees' weeping habit. The letter x in the Latin name indicates that golden weeping willow is a hybrid species.

These details are courtesy of the site Canadian Tree Tours I found this when I was searching for the origin of this tree, and found the site to be well worth looking through. There is much there to further my enjoyment of the trees I see around me.

Tree Appreciation Tuesday - Spared Oak

During the winter when the ground is saturated, a walk along made up paths are in order, and we have used the path leading from Wells Sports Centre towards Haybridge.  Now a new housing estate has been built, further paths were built through some fields making a short circular walk a possibility. 

Oak trees are fairly common in this area, both in the open in fields, and in mixed woodland, and there are a number of these scattered along old hedgerows.  In this area these seem to be about the same age, with extensive branching. This one caught my attention on a number of walks, and I am so pleased they were no felled at the time the space was laid out.

I like the way the bark on the main trunk has been closing up around an old side branch that has been decaying for a long time.  It was too muddy to walk around the tree to see if there are signs of the tree having completely covered over areas leaving gnarled patches along the main trunk.

This is another similar oak less than 100 metres away, but here covered with ivy and no doubt offering shelter to birds at night, during storms, or providing ideal nesting opportunities.

 

Tree Appreciation Tuesday - First in the line of London Planes in Wells Recreation Ground

One evening last week as we walked from the Palace to our car, we walked through the Recreation Grounds listening to an owl hooting.  It was dark and very quiet which perhaps allowed me to take in the line of the trees which runs along this path in a different way.

Entrance to Wells Recreation Ground

The very first tree is the largest in this line, and as I walked again along the path this Sunday with my friend Jean, we considered whether this was because it was the closest to the Palace moat and had close access to plenty of water.

This Week's Tree the largest in a line

After several searches, I have found out about the history of the park as it was set up in the late 1880's led by Bishop Hervey, I also found a 2023 Survey of the trees by Ayers Forestry Ltd.  Although I am a great admirer of Plane Trees and recognised the structure of the branches, and the shape of the leaves, it did not have the usual flaking bark which epitomises the outer bark. However the Survey does list this line of trees as London Planes.

The bark on the trunk does not have the large scally plates, I am yet to learn why and whether this is the form on older trees.  I have worked out that the trees were probably planted soon after the park was formed, but of course this was on the Bishop's land so may well be older.  The survey gives the diameter as 1200mm and height as 27m.

I posted pictures on the Facebook site Britain's Ancient and Sacred Trees, and this comment described the condition of the tree:

Nick Owen

The surface of the main bole shows epicormic growth - a kind of burr like Patricial Borley says. The tree itself has been pollarded at least twice. Once when young to give a bolling and then high pollarded more recently. There are also 'doughnut' scars that suggest sporadic minor 'surgery'. It seems to have lots of friends in line astern of it, close to that building, the closeness may give rise to more surgery in future.

Tree Appreciation Tuesday - one in a line of oaks

One of our regular walks just from home down on to  the levels and round Hay Hill and along Haymoor Drove lies a number of several large Oak Trees.  On one side the land rises, but on the drove side, the roots of these large oaks plunge into the Haymoor Rhyne.

Even though we have lived here a relatively short time, we have come to love the diversity of the landscape, from the Mendips to the low laying areas.  The drainage ditches are called rhynes which on the whole are straight, and often alongside run droves, which are almost totally unsuited to traffic except for farm traffic, but make excellent cycle and walking routes to view the varied bird life, tree scape, ample skies, and in summer beautiful cattle and sheep.  

Walking away from Coxley Wick in a clockwise direction just as the drove starts to fall to lower ground is a series of tall oak trees.  The one I have singled off for particular appreciation this Tuesday is this one, with long extending limbs as if reaching out towards some spot on the horizon. 

I posted this next picture of that same tree on Briton's Ancient and Sacred Trees on Facebook:

It is not a good picture, as it was such a dark day and I felt I had to adjust the exposure to show some of the detail.  The follow comment were very interesting: 

Pollards are often much older than maidens of similar size and girth because the act of pollarding slows growth. This tree looks like a pollard because there are several large trunks (and at least one scar) growing from the top of a trunk. Nick Own Dec 2023

Several of the other oaks had multiple trunks.

This is just past the main clump of oaks in the direction we were walking, with one or two more oaks further along.  These two riders we crossed  again 30 minutes later, when we stopped to have a chat.

At this stage I looked back and took a picture of the main group of oaks.

This week many of the fields are covered in water. Indeed had they not dredged the rhyne last year and left the ever increasing mounds at the side of the one tracked tarmacked lane,  a little further down on a right angled elbow, we would have had to walk along the road in water nearly up to our knees.  Even so walking along the 'bank' between the rhyne and the road led to a feeling of 'adventure' and excitement.  The water fowl were having a great time on the flooded fields and dozens of BBB ie Big Black Birds ranging from crows to jackdaws were busy feeding on worms around the edges of the water. 

Early this year there was less water in this field I really ought to have taken pictures this week, but with further heavy rain looming, I felt that I had lingered long enough and Mr S was getting techy as we had left before our morning coffee time and had taken a drink with us.

I am currently reading The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben.  It is beautifully written and I am learning so much about Trees.

Tree Appreciation Tuesday - Even when dark

 As the days grow shorter, and leaves fall, it is not unusual for me to be out when it is dark.  My walk to town if I attend meetings or happen to meet up with friends in the evening, takes me, should I chose not to take a detour, along an urban street, at the town end of which stands a Silver Birch Tree.

Of course it is always a joy to see this Silver Birch on the corner backed by a mid range Victorian Villa.  It happens to be growing very close to a lamp post.  It looked attractive with its white trunk lit up and it fine branches and catkins already forming reading to expand in the warmer spring temperature.

This picture was taken on the night I was walking back from having dinner with friends from my WI photography group.  Our leader Janette had set us the theme of night time photography.  On the way in I had taken some pictures of our very quiet town centre, which I was fairly pleased with.  On the way home I took our my phone and thought to take very pictures of the Silver Birch at night.  This is the only one I took, as for some reason the time for me to head home is the time for youngsters to come out and head to town or simply go out to 'hang out with friends'.  After a few strange looks as I took the first picture I felt a little too shy to take more!

On Tuesday evening I walked again to another function in the centre, and this time I was able to take a couple more pictures.

Silver Birch under street light

Looking back at my appreciation for the Silver Birch in general, it came to mind that I have planted them in several of my previous gardens.  They grow amazingly quickly and the first one I bought was hardly more than a sapling from Woolworths and  is now a fine and tall tree, all for less than two pounds.  I try when I plant trees to plant them young without any stake or tree guard and have always been successful.

This was the first of my pictures for the month's photography challenges that of Wells Bishop's Palace.  Taken with my phone.  

At one of our previous homes  a tall silver birch grew in the front garden to reach to the third floor. I remember  one year a large flock of gold finch alighted and spent time eating the seeds, and another time in front of my very eyes, whilst tacking a heap of ironing, I observed the defoliation of the tree by sawflies, feeding like little pigs at a trough all around the edges of the leaves.  It only made for a bare tree for a little while, and the tree was quite recovered the next season and did not suffer the same fate again

Tree Appreciation Tuesday - Growing up between the lines

I do like Birch Trees and planted a lovely specimen in a previous garden.  Here this multistemmed plant probably starting its life from a blown in seed, and  taking root around the time the Railway Station at Winscombe closed down in 1963/64.  This tree around 60 years old probably got cut down several times in the very early days as waggons passed into the siding. Since the station was closed to both passenger and good traffic,  it has grown up into a fine multi stemmed specimen gracing the heritage walk.

Yesterday the Short and Easy walkers from Wells WI drove over to Winscombe where we walked part of the Strawberry line.  It is a stretch which affords extensive views with a tree lined walk along the track bed.  I didn't have to go far before I found what may have been 'the tree of the day'.  For sure we passed many possible contenders, but on our way back, I become certain that this tree would be the tree for this week's post.

These weekly  Tree Appreciation Tuesday Posts are ongoing.   Do leave comments perhaps with mention of a tree you appreciation. 

Tree Appreciation Tuesday

 It has continued to rain more than usual and the ground is now saturated, with water trickling from the banks each side of the road, forming shallow streams and gathering volume till it reaches ditches and rhynes which are currently overflowing onto the levels.  

Yesterday we went for our customary walk and it would have been damaging to the land to walk along the path that cuts through this field to get up closer to the wonder old oak tree.  I had taken this picture on the 6th of November the day I posted about the old Ash Tree.  Yesterday it was still holding its leaves through the colours were more autumnal.  I shall try to get a picture again in a few days time.  The sheep have been moved higher up the slope.

This wonderful old open grown English Oak is the first tree on our circular walk that always draws me to stop to admire it and the view beyond,  Less than five minutes walk from the house it stands in a corner of a field, and from this side of the hedge and back along the outer left hand hedge is a bank of beautiful wild flowers in the spring. Sadly the tree just this side of the large oak is now just a standing dead tree, hopefully it will be left there to form a habitat of beetles and other insects.

I ought to have made this the first of the trees in my Tree Appreciation series, as it was the first tree I appreciated the evening we moved to our new home a number of years ago. 

Tree Appreciation Tuesday

 Conditions were muddy, and water lying on the top of the Mendips on Black Down Moor. After a walk with friends of a couple of hours or so exposed to the strong winds and squally showers, we were lead by Janette into Rowberrow Warren to return to our starting point through the wooded hillside.

Rowberrow Warren Older Beech Tree

I have since looked up details of the Rowberrow Warren woodland on the Forestry Commission Site.  Most of the trees are relatively young, but just as we were leaving the wood on the West Mendip Way, transecting the path was a little stream toppling down the slope. Without the rain we have had and in the summer this is probably  dry gulley.  On the eastern bank there were a couple of much older trees, the farther one hardly still living.  The one closer to the path is the subject of this week's fulsome appreciation.

This post is in the series Tree Appreciation Tuesday.

Tree Appreciation Tuesday

 We have a number of local walks, and sometimes all you need is to stretch your legs and  feel the fresh air against your skin. We are lucky to have a regular walk, which can be extended to form a larger circular walk of just under two hours at our leisurely pace taking in the views.  

No planning is required, just deciding whether to take water proofs, and how many layers to wear.  We don't even need to look for car keys, as the countryside is just around a hundred metres from our front door. 

During the winter a walk along lanes and droves is the best option as soils here are clay and not easy to walk over after rain. This walk takes us down on to the levels where the lanes are called droves and these wind their way around fields where during the summer cattle and sheep are let out to graze on the rich grasslands.

If we don't want a walk of over an hour, we just walk along the lane.  Keeping a good space we walk to 'Our Tree' and back in just under an hour.  We do this walk once or up to three times a week. The Tree is question is getting more raggedy each year.  We are lucky however that it is well within a farmer's field, and no hazard to vehicles or other users of the country lane, or it would have been felled like many of the once iconic Ash  trees of the Mendips. Already since moving down to Somerset many trees have been lost in just the last five years. 

This Ash Tree works as a marker for us, and we can guage our fitness, as we recover from whatever we may have caught,  as to how easily we reach this tree, and whether the following walk will be a longer one. 

This side of the hedge is a drainage ditch, which this Sunday was full of water, the hedge yet to be trimmed but with the height of the tree it is easy to see into its canopy and see the number of dead or dying limbs.  I have no idea of how old this tree is.  It is fairly sheltered from northerly winds as there is a ridge of higher ground, crested by small collections of trees and scrub at the crest.  

This is not the first tree that we note on our walk, but this week I wanted to show it as the leaves are still on the tree which is the latest I have know Ash to hold their leaves.  The dead branches are easily identified too from this distance.

She is an old diseased isolated tree and once maybe have been part of a hedge as one can glimpse the remnants of an old hedge growing down the hill from the top.  Her canopy is much reduced since we first selected her as our way marker, Still with her gnarled trunk she is much loved and appreciated. 

 I wonder if birds may nest in her various hollows each spring.  We have seen birds of prey, pigeons, crows, and jackdaws perch but of course not all at the same time. 

A little before you get to this tree just up from the road a little is a dead Ash tree, with her skirt of scrub and bramble. Gradually as the bows decay and fall, and the thicket underneath increases, all memory of this tree will be lost.  Just how long will it take for 'Our Tree' to reach this stage?  If we are around, we shall shall still stop and remember her.

This post is in the series Tree Appreciation Tuesday.

Tree Appreciation Tuesday - The Winchester Ash Tree that dares to soften the harsh landscaping

 I could have chosen so many other Ash Trees.  The Mendips are or were covered with some fine specimens.  The tell tale sound of chain saws has been reverberating over many acres, as diseased trees are felled, and many that did not appear to be suffering too. Maybe it is just cheaper to cut the whole lot down rather than examine individual trees and spare the ones that appear robust.  That is a shame. The Somerset landscape is changing very quickly.

Time seems to be running out for Ash Trees, and seeing such a beautiful and healthy specimen for a while filled me with hope. Yes there is hope as far as Ash Trees are concerned with small populations of trees that seem to be able to resist Ash die back, I hope this tree is one of those.

We were in Winchester for a few days, and although there were many fine trees in the area and along the River Itchen, this Ash Tree really had an impact on me.  As we were walking towards The Great Hall of the Castle built when Winchester was the capital of England, I couldn't help but notice and appreciate this beautiful Ash Tree.

Fraxinus excelsior adding a splash of green within a hard landscape

Poised on the wall, almost enveloped by the tree this young person was immersed in their phone.  This Ash Tree, with its roots probably seeking long buried nutrients from the tower garderobe, added a splash of green, a living element to the otherwise stark hard landscaping of the area around the law courts leading up to the Great Hall, where the round table is housed.

From the walk way you can look down to see where the tree emerges.  Was it a seedling that just got too large before it was noticed, or was the tree planted there on purpose?  

As I looked at this fine tree, I speculated about this, and also wondered how old it was. I don't think it is even 'mature' yet, and pray that it will survive.  Who can tell?  It was also very easy to peer up the branches almost as if walking along one of those high walkways put up in forests for tourists to become immersed in the trees.

The young branches were still relatively smooth yet were further softened by the colony of lichens and mosses that had found a foot hold.

Long may this beautiful tree last, and hopefully I am not the only person to appreciate it.

Ash tree growing in the Great dry moat of the old Winchester Castle

This is #4 in the Tree Appreciation Tuesday series, do view the previous ones, and you are very welcome to comment or join in.  The link leads you to them and also guidelines for joining in. 

Tree Appreciation Tuesday - a tiered beauty Cornus controversa

 Trees in front gardens are a gift to passers by and visitors from the people who planted them.  I often direct visitors to Wells to view 15th Century Vicar's Close. After this post I shall suggest they also view this beautiful tree.

Just through the Waggon Gate in the Chain Bridge you can see this week's tiered beauty.  Although this beautiful tree captured my attention the first time I walked down St Andrews Street, I didn't know what it was.  It is a beautiful specimen of a tree, nicely placed and surrounded by beautiful buildings which could easily outshine a different darker tree. But with its variegated foliage and space around it stands its ground well.  It is so much younger than any of the surrounding building.

Is it because of its juxtaposition to the beautiful late medieval house called the Rib and the Cathedral to the other side, or its exquisite form with layers of variegated leaves, that I wanted to choose this tree for my third 'Tree Appreciation Tuesday' post?  It just appeals to me on so many levels. 

Cornus controversa 'Variegata'

This is a weekly post, comments are very much appreciated, and you are very welcome to join in any week with a tree which has caught your attention, follow the link to understand the format. 

Tree Appreciation Tuesday - The 'Adam and Eve' Yew Tree at Bishop's Palace Wells

 I've been delighted by this Yew Tree from the day I first saw it. 

The 'Adam and Eve' Taxus baccate

I had imagined this as a very old tree, with aged boughs removed,  standing there perhaps centuries before the Bishop's Palace and this wall were ever built.  Just how many times have I squeezed myself to look through the 'eye' from the other side?  Not through the hole but round the tree! The saying from the bible sometimes floats into my mind when I see this tree about a camel going through the eye of a needle. I tried this time looking through the  hole to see if I could see something interesting: there they are The White Angel Wings by Edgar Phillips.

Last week I went to a talk for members, and happened to get chatting to one of the group.  As we walked back I found out that she was a volunteers guide, we stopped and chatted by the treen and Diana explained that they used to call this the Adam and Eve Yew, because there used to be a sculpture of Adam and Eve at about the spot where the wings now stand.

A few days earlier on one of my morning walks round the grounds I happened to see James Cross: Head gardener since 2004, and asked him if he knew how old the tree was.  I was quite shocked to hear that he believed it only about 200 years old, so much younger that I thought.  He showed me a tree which was slightly bigger than he knew had been planted around that time too. Further more he explained that the tree by the door to the outer garden was two trees: a male and a female, that had fused together, but he did not know if that had been by design or not.

So much for opening my eyes: I had not realised that there were male and female trees!  I went back to look more closely at the tree.  When you have this knowledge you look at the tree in a different light.  Yes there were branches with the ripening fruit, that was growing from the female part.

Arils bearing the seed on a female Yew Tree

The branches from the male tree had none, with the tips where the male flowers that will bear the pollen which the wind will carry are starting to form.

Tips of branches on a male Yew Tree

The bark of the tree is beautiful and I  noticed the characteristic shedding of small flakes.

The trees are fused at the lower parts, and also higher up.

Finding out a little more about this tree in particular and Yew Trees in general has increased my appreciation of this tree even more.

Just by coincidence when I popped into the library on the way home after taking pictures of the tree, I happened to see a book on the shelf, it was called The Treeline by Ben Rawlence.  The very first page of the book starts off with a description of the Yew behind the author's house. That author describes the trees wonderfully.  Another example of serendipity.

I have been asked since posting this about how to tell the age of Yew Trees.  At the start of his book, Ben explains:

"Dating yew trees is notoriously hard.  This is partly because there is no upper age limit.  They grow rapidly in youth, steadily in middle age, and can survive in senescence for an apparently unlimited period,  Sometimes growth can stop and the tree can stand dormant for long periods, possibly centuries.  Tree ring analysis fails with yews." 

If you would like to join in and post a good tree on your blog, and link it in the comments, you can find some guidelines here: https://noellemace.blogspot.com/2023/10/tree-appreciation-tuesday-participant.html