Tree trunks

I have been taking a lot of pictures of tree trunks.

 

 

They seem to be saying something to me about aging and about being individual. When they were young, all these trees were like their own type, but in age, all bent and scarred, they are themselves; they have achieved grandeur from survival, and I feel something like solidarity with them, and that their survival is an achievement to be respected. I love their shapes, but also their colours and textures, and it's a bad day when I don't notice something wonderful and new in the way of a tree trunk.

 

I do edit the photos, especially, of course, the ones that are not so good.

 

 



Oak



Yew

Beech

Windsor Great Park walk: types of oak tree: there are more than I thought!

As I had planned I did venture into Windsor Great Park, and it was a bleak experience over half term - a very chilly day. Eventually I did come across something interesting - the Queen's collection of oak trees, given to her by the countries of the Commonwealth on the occasion of her Coronation or marriage - can't remember which, and I can't find any reference to this collection online. There are of course, more countries in the Commonwealth than there are types of oak tree. (- Post script - this isn't' true. There are more than 600 types of oak tree in the world! But some of them come from Mexico, China and South America and perhaps they don't grow in a temperate climate.) So you can see below that there is a variety of trees but some of them are duplicated 2 or 3 times by different donors.

 Here is a sample of the labels. In the summer and autumn it will be fun to see all the different leaves.