personality trees

blossom on the tree

The last two visits to the land have both been overnight stays. The first was undertaken with some planning and a lot of stuff; the second was a wild, last-minute decision to go supermoon-gazing (still with quite a lot of stuff, and an artist we kidnapped… well no, he came willingly, forsaking comfortable hotel bed and a decent breakfast, the poor man.)

No gardening happened on either occasion, but that’s OK. Well, actually, no gardening could have happened because someone has walked off with my fork and spade. My fault, I suppose, for not posting “No Trespassing” notices, but very annoying all the same. The bird feeder was still there, hanging from its tree, but no bird had been near it in a week by the looks of things. Which is odd, because it had been completely emptied out the week before. Perhaps the phantom, garden-tool-nicking goblins are into refilling bird feeders. Too, too helpful of them!

Anyway, I’ve done some research online for signs to post: No Hunting, No Trespassing, that sort of thing.  I think I’ll go with that, rather than the blair witch pentacles, skulls and dead crows solution suggested by one Twitter friend, very very tempting though that is. (But watch this space for some super-moonlit, blair-witch-inspired shots!) I’m also now attempting to convince any friend who’ll listen that deer fence installation is the new leisure activity du jour. Imagine it: lovely camping trip, all-you-can-eat BBQ on the Saturday night, and … er … 600 ft of fencing to assemble. No worries. Piece of cake, really. Practically puts itself up…

Let’s look at some nice pictures of trees.

All trees are lovely, of course, with unique stories and personalities, but here are three that grow close to the edge of my forest boundaries. They could be sentinels, guardians of the perimeter.

This silver-white tree, with one large bough growing almost parallel to the ground, is right in the SW corner of the property. Lying along the bough, you can keep watch over the creek, with its little bit of sandy beach (featured below), and look out over “enemy” terrain… just joking!

Tree Guardian 1
raccoon prints on the beach

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Walking back along the western(ish) boundary, you see these guys: hollow trees with a lot of character!

Tree Guardian 2
Tree Guardian 3

 

This one looks like a little horned sprite from certain angles!

 

 

mistletoe

We even saw a sprig of mistletoe lying on the forest floor, although we couldn’t work out where it had come from.

 

 

 

And finally, so much fun to put the kettle on after a woodland walk! (Note the luxurious, breeze block seating.)

putting the kettle on!

virtual housekeeping

I’ve been wondering for a while now if I should ditch the Gallery page on this site. A Gallery seemed like a nice idea when I was starting out, but I don’t see myself using it much now that I’m just putting images straight into my blog posts. So, out it goes, but there’ll be a new page – a virtual bookshelf – coming soon, maybe even next week (oh the joys of Spring Break!!) I’ve moved old Gallery images to the blog posts that referred to them wherever possible, but my first Gallery post was free-standing, so I’m reproducing it again here… And why not, since it’s about one of my favourite places? (I bought my parents a Green-level Subscription to the Alnwick Garden for Christmas, and they’re looking forward to seeing it in all its spring glory when it opens again on April 1.)

Favourite places: The Treehouse at Alnwick in England

A tree house complex, built around and incorporating some larger, old trees (leaving space for them to continue growing). In addition to an excellent restaurant (book ahead!), there are other little shops, deck areas, walkways and bridges threading through the trees. It’s lovely.

Inspirational project and design... and with a great restaurant too.