Trees and woodland

5 August

Bad night last night, I think I overloaded me belly at dinner time. Whatever, about 2 o’clock this morning was up feeling very sicky indeed. It soon passed off though but I thought I’d better take my CPAP mask off in case it started again and I didn’t get it off quickly enough. It didn’t start up again but I did toss and turn for some time after that and I got up this morning feeling very tired and low. Enough of that …

Facebook again this morning is and one of the groups I follow is the Woodlands Trust, and they have shown a couple walking through a wood somewhere and it made me feel very envious of them. We both love woodlands simply because they so quiet and peaceful and full of life. All you need to do is to stop, maybe find somewhere to sit quietly and listen and watch for the life in there to show up. Even popular places like Coombe Abbey in Coventry is a great place. The numbers of visitors just seem to disappear around the site.

Lone trees are full of life too. It just takes patience to wait for it to show up. Even when a tree dies off there’s a right a lot of life in it. That’s why in some places fallen trees are let to rot down naturally because they provide shelter and food for so many critters that need them. Right outside our flat door there’s a nice alder tree which is being removed by the council because it’s a ‘co-dominate’ tree. That’s where one trunk divides into two separate boughs which weakens the whole tree.

I’d never come across this before until the council tree officer came and saw us and I was left feeling a bit puzzled by it. I’m wondering if it was a bit of fogging of the issue. Anyway, what he said is the alder is supposed to be removed next April when the new allocation of money is made. This tree is just one of four that is being removed if things go as he claimed. I have mixed feeling about this. The loss of one tree is bad enough but the removal of all four is a different thing altogether. Apparently in one case the tree concerned was condemned as dead/dangerous years ago.

All this has come about because a group of us signed a petition to have some conifers cut back so we can get a bit more natural light in our living room. The tree officer has now said that all those trees on the side are being removed too, because they too are in a dangerous condition. So even more trees biting the dust. Oh dear, perhaps we might have been better off keeping quiet about the light. And yet, knowing the council as I do, just like all councils in the UK, I can’t see them doing everything they are claimed will be done. We’ll see when the time comes.

Today’s photos then … 

A twisted willow tree showing co-dominated branches.

Today’s funny, another kids version of the Bible …

Abraham had a son Isaac, and his grandson was Jacob. Esau was Jacob's brother, but Jacob was more famous because Esau sold him his birthmark for some pot roast. Jacob had a son, Joseph. Joseph wore a really loud sports coat.