Timber Trees and Tractors

A beech tree felled because of its decayed core is neatly sliced and gives the passer by its last hurrah with a golden red glow, almost the colour of its autumn leaves.  I wonder if a local woodturner is going to be a lucky recipient of some of this timber.

The farmers are busy at this time of year

and this one in his tractor was spreading fertilizer while his dog burned up energy covering more distance than him racing up and down the field.  The white blossom of the hawthorn trees can be seen scattered over the Lickle Valley, although as the morning was full of heavy showers of rain they don't stand out as much as they do in reality.  If I had only taken my walk in what turned out to be a sunny afternoon

like this one was.  Tranquil Broughton Towers pond but I didn't sit on the seat for it was more interesting at the waters edge where the tadpoles were in perpetual motion unlike 

this piece of machinery which looks to be more greenhouse than tractor. 

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at T here

 

Exposed

The sands of Morecambe Bay came into view as on Saturday I gained modest height on Hampsfell by the lone exposed tree and if on cue the sky darkened

with just some shafts of light tracing the the winding tidal gullies. The sharp wind blew and then the hail shower started so I tucked my camera away and continued on thankful that I was well wrapped up against the elements.

The hardy snowdrops seem enured to the elements and have started to flower like a signpost

to more gentle seasons to come.
  

A warm summer's day on the footpath that links the villages of Foxfield and Broughton which at this point crosses the Eccle Rigg's nine hole golf course but something had changed nearby when I walked this way at the end of 2016 for the small indistinct pond that lies at the bottom

had been cleaned out and grown a bit bigger and deeper.  The notice asks everyone to stay away from the now exposed edges until it settles and regrows.   I think they are trying to improve the drainage but in the meantime

I look forward to some reflection opportunities when I might improve on this photograph.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at E here

Monkey Puzzle

Here is a conifer on the very start of its journey when instead of looking down we will be looking up to eighty, a hundred or more feet.  This is the Chilean Pine which used to be abundant in that country but a million have been burnt in forest fires as the climate becomes hotter and drier and the fires become more frequent.  The English speaking world knows the tree more familiarly as the Monkey Puzzle and you can judge its hight here below by the house in the background..

The seeds of the tree are edible (although do not appear until the trees are 30-40 years old). When the botanist Archibald Menzies was served them as a desert at a dinner given by the Governor of Chile in 1795 he pocketed a few and grew them on the ship back to Europe, of the resulting 5 healthy plants two were planted at Kew Gardens.  Fast forward to 1850 and Charles Austin (a barrister who made his fortune during the Victorian Railway Mania era) was being shown around a garden in Bodmin, Cornwall and made the comment "It would puzzle a monkey to climb that" and the tree became popularly known as the Monkey Puzzler and then the current name of Monkey Puzzle.  The French call them désespoir des singes (monkey's despair)

Like the set of four trees above most were planted in the landscape gardens of large houses in the 19th Century and these trees from the Jurrasic era (sometimes called a living fossil) were quite a status symbol.  In the 1900s and especially the 1920s they became a very popular plant for the suburban garden where they just grew and grew.  I seem to remember there used to be a lot more around but perhaps their large size and sharp pointed leaves may have overwhelmed the owners, or maybe I just found them fascinating as a child so noticed them more.  Today a lot of these long lived trees have tree preservation orders on them so they cannot be cut down and remain to entrance us.  Perhaps I am wrong about the numbers for Sarah Horton in a labour of love is mapping Monkey Puzzles here  and blogs about it here joined by her Monkey Puzzle agents to potentially photograph and map the Monkey Puzzle world, although as she is based in Liverpool there may be a British Isles bias.

An entry to ABC Wednesday, a journey through the alphabet, this week sojourning at M here 

 

      

Oak Flowers

A young oak tree, low enough to photograph the male flowers clusters hanging down while the fewer female flowers are upright above the catkins. They depend on the wind for pollination so this week must have been excellent for them as it has been blowing heartily. We will expect lots of little acorns in the autumn.

And maybe we will anticipate a good summer because

If the oak's before the ash
You will only get a splash,
If the ash before the oak
You are sure to get a soak.