TREE FOLLOWING - I'VE FOUND MY TREE

Only after taking this picture of the tree did I realise how close
its silhouette is to the Tree Following emblem.

The morning was sunny. I set out to photograph my tree. I arrived. The sky had clouded over. The world was in black and white. Ok. We'll go with this. We'll have a proper silhouette.

I've chosen my tree with my heart rather than my head. I don't know what kind of tree it is. I can't reach its branches. I can't reach its needles. There's no interesting undergrowth around it. It's not in a photogenic location. I can't remember any bird sitting in it. It's falling to bits. It may have to be felled before the end of the year.

It may have to be felled . . . that clinches it. This may be the last chance we'll have to get to know it. There are many of the same in the area. I'd guess they were planted at roughly the same time. They are in parks and in gardens. This one is on a patch of grass in front of a block of flats.

Many near it have already been chopped down. Their branches die and have to be lopped. Eventually there will be none left. Indeed, I reported this tree myself a few years ago when a large branch broke away after a high wind. It didn't fall; it dangled. It could have landed on something. When tree surgeons arrived I was worried they might take out the whole tree. They didn't. (As you can see!)

It's a kind of pine (I think). When you look up into its remaining branches you can see its cones. They are about six inches long, heavy and very dense. A friend has tried to grow a new tree from the seeds of several - never with success.

The needles are long too (about four inches) and grow in bunches. The bark is chunky, irregular and layered. When dry it's grey. When wet its colour is richer - with tints of conkers. There are webs in its fractures - so there must be spiders. It weeps resin.

See the fallen needles leaning against the bark on the left of the picture?
The plant about to flower is Chickweed (Stellaria media)

Above ground, the trunk is supported by what I think of as toes. Alongside them and around the tree there are plants. I hadn't expected plants. I'd expected sparse grass. There were docks and daisies, plantain and chickweed.

Roots have broken the surface.






Although you may not be conscious of it, what you hear when you visit a tree will influence how you relate to it. Trees inspire emotions and emotions are inspired by sound as much as by sight. The only means I have to record sound for the blog is by taking a video. So that's what I've done. It's not exactly action packed but it gives the tree a context; there's a car, a crow, voices, gulls.

Here it is on YouTube - Click!

It's surprising how many plants grow around
the tree despite the spread of its branches.
Daisy (Bellis perennis)

All I need to know now is what kind of tree it is. For the moment, I'm calling it Freda. I don't know why it looks like a Freda. It just does. So, having decided on its name I set out (irrelevantly, I admit!) to find out what 'Freda' means. Maybe 'peaceful ruler' or 'elf-strength' say the baby-name sites. (I'm not always sure whether these meanings are real or made up and my knowledge of mediaeval saxon doesn't exist - does anyone know?) Pottering further through the internet and away from my tree, I found an Elfrida who was Queen consort to Edgar, King of the English; roughly 957 - 975. (It's complicated.) King Edgar? Never heard of him! I know I'm wandering from my tree but they were a 'right lot' in those days and while I've not read this book about her its synopsis on Good Reads gives the idea! Indeed Elfrida would have made a good founding member for the League of Wicked Stepmothers. She had one of her step-sons murdered at Corfe Castle so - Dorset! Strength! Peace! Freda it is! It's an old fashioned name. If we ignore less pleasant associations, perhaps it's due for a come-back.

Are you following a tree?

All photographs in this post were taken on March 5th 2014

I'm Following a Tree

This post is part of the Tree Following project for 2014. To find out more about it, go to the Tree Following Page. Tomorrow (7th March 2014) there will be a Linky box. If you have a post about the tree you are following you will be able to leave its URL there so other readers will be able to find it easily. If you haven't used a linky box before, don't worry. It's all very straightforward and obvious when you see it. If your post isn't ready yet - no matter. The box will stay 'open' for a week.

Easy to remember - open for 7 days from 7th of every month from now on.

Want to join in? Email me at looseandleafy@googlemail.com

P.S. This tree is very tall. I'm no good at guessing heights. Carole at La Fosse has used trigonomtery to measure the height of the chestnut tree she's following. That's beyond me. All I can say is that 'my' tree is very tall but not as tall as hers!

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FRUIT TREES - A GARDEN CENTRE EXPEDITION

Bumble Bee (Buff-Tailed Bumble Bee (Bombus (Bombus) terrestris?)
on Hellebore flowers in a garden centre.

I've been to a garden centre.

Garden centres aren't the usual haunt for posts on Loose and Leafy but it's often struck me some trees along an old railway line not far from where I live mark a border between the domestic and the wild. Perhaps I should trace their modern origins?

Some have their roots - literally - in gardens below the embankment. What seem to be bushes turn out to be the tops of quite hefty trees, with their trunks disappearing down through the undergrowth into a world of mown lawns and washing lines. There are what seem to be vestiges of cottage and station gardens too - like apple trees with crocosmia at the foot of one of them. And there are damsons which are good to pick and turn into jam as well as sloes.

So I went to the garden centre to visit their cousins.

Garden centres are prim places compared with the brambled acres and nettlebeds I usually feature in this blog; and much better regulated than the little street plants which feature in my urban posts. But they are handy if you want to examine a twig.

There's an apple tree whose windfalls I collect in the autumn - but its branches are high.

Apple tree bud. (Spartan)

I can examine a garden centre apple bud close-to.

At this time of year it's hard to distinguish the rail-side damson trees from others crowded around them.

Damson (Merryweather)

But, at the garden centre, they are clearly labelled.

I've not come across pears growing wild. That doesn't stop me admiring them when I come across them standing close in a garden centre row.

Pears (Commice)

The top of one of the pear trees
close up

Sometime in the next few weeks, we are likely to be joined by readers of Kitchen Garden Magazine. Welcome if you are one of them! Would you like to join us in Following a Tree for a year (and beyond!). All you have to do is to pick a tree - whether in your garden or in the wild or in a public place like a road-side or a park - and keep an eye on it for a year; notice when its leaves break open, when it blossoms, what it looks like in summer . . . what plants grow at its feet . . . whether there are lichens on its trunk . . . insects in its bark . . . birds in its branches.

I'm Following a Tree

You don't need to write anything down to follow a tree. It's all in the noticing. However, if you would like to share what you see why not think about starting a blog if you haven't one already? (If you'd appreciate a little help, do email. I can advise about setting up one like this (the format is supplied free by blogger)). Or you might like another kind - click on some of the links on the Tree Following page and be inspired! (Wordpress is popular too.)

Maybe you are on Twitter? Use #treefollowing.

On YouTube - document your tree there. If you are planting a new fruit tree in your garden - star in your own movie about digging the hole for its roots! (I recorded birds from below an elderberry tree I followed. (April 2012))

Or if you would like simply to send me a photo of your tree once in a while through the year, and maybe a paragraph about it, I'll see if I can find a space for it here on Loose and Leafy.

looseandleafy@googlemail.com

Bloggers - on Friday March 7th and on the 7th of every month from thenTree Following motif on your blog - please feel free to do so.
on, there'll be an opportunity to leave a link to your tree following posts on a linky box. (If you have not come across one before, don't worry, it's perfectly straightforward to use.) And if you'd like to use the

For more about tree following - and a growing list of tree followers - click HERE.

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FOLLOWING TREES AND VIEWS AND WILLOW HERB

What is Tree Following and Who Does It?

Although I'm officially following an elderberry tree - or, rather, a clump of tangled elders, I've not abandoned the sycamore I've been keeping an eye on for several years. Indeed, there are quite a few trees, and bushes and patches of ground that I am specially aware of. This post is about five of them.

We'll begin with that elder.

As I've mentioned, it was cut back during the summer so the berries went AWOL and the undergrowth in front disappeared. This cutting, I have learnt over time, has a reasonably short lived impact - even though though the result is a one-sided tree. And, of course, I've yet to see what happens in the very long term.

One of the things I've noticed when choosing particular leaves to follow - observing them right from when they are little green blobs - is that the ones which come to my attention early tend not to do well compared with those which burst later. This happened with the hawthorn I thought was a blackthorn (oh dear!) and it is true of the elderberry too.

February 5th 2012

This is the shoot I chose on the elderberry tree. It seemed a good one at the time because it's in the crook of a branch and easy to find over and over.

This is how it was earlier in the year.

(February 2012)

September 27th 2012

This is how it is now.

Familiar pattern?

Sycamore I'm following - September 22nd 2012

Then the sycamore.

The ivy clinging to it was cut back during the year. Necessary, perhaps, but sad for me - I'm fascinated by the elegance of single strands and the beauty, the colour, the shape of its leaves. Of the trees in this little woodland area, it is not the leafiest, despite its sturdy trunk(s!) - and autumn this year is odd. A curl up at the edges and fall off kind of event instead of dramatic colour.

September  22nd 2012

Same Tree - September 2008

On the other hand, another elder bush - one which attracted my attention as early as 2008 (when I was using my phone as a camera) continues to grow and thrive and produce yellow leaves. This is not down to autumn. This is how the bush regularly is. Maybe it isn't an elderberry?

Remember the thistle from a couple of weeks ago? Where the bees gathered in June?  I've not been 'following' that particular plant. More, I've been aware of that patch.

Willow Herb Shedding its Seeds - September 21st 2012

Willow Herb grows there too. There are lots of Willow Herbs - not just the well known Rose Bay variety (Fire Weed on the western side of the Atlantic) and I don't want to hazard which this is. However, until very recent heavy rain and short, sharp wind, they were opening their pods and releasing seeds.

September 20th 2012 (in Esther's Garden)

I've not understood how this works before. One minute there are tall, thin, upright pods. The next, the plants are 'decorated' with an ugly, fluffy, tangled mess. By being more aware, this year, I've seen what happens. The seeds are evenly spaced in straight lines up the pods and each seed is attached to a closed parachute above it. The pods don't split at the sides so much as peel back from the top and, as they dry and open, they pull open the parachutes. This, to me, is clever and marvelous but, also (to me) the next stage is less impressive. Instead of flying away like dandelion seeds, they seem to fall where they are and get caught in the peeled back bits of the pods lower down the plant. This, presumably, is why tall willow herbs grow in clumps. Some seeds get away though and it's a good 'spreader'. The smaller versions which arrive in gardens, I have noticed, are more likely to give each other space.

Willow Herb which has dropped its seeds onto opened pods on the same plant - September 13th 2012

This picture is of a middle sized one in my neighbour Esther Montgomery's garden after the seeds have fallen into their old-cotton-wool muddle. (All sorts of things can look better in a photograph then in 'real' life!)

And, last up - a view.

This is new. Well, clearly not a new view but new that I'm following. Because it's by a bench, and because there's a castle to fix in the middle of the picture, we should be able to follow it through the seasons, certain we are looking, each time, in the same direction!

September 21st 2012

By putting the ruins of Sandsfoot castle centre frame, it should be reasonably easy to keep a steady eye on what is happening to the tree on the right of the picture, the brambles on the left and the view beyond.

* * *

For more about Tree Following - Click HERE

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I'M A TREE FOLLOWER - WHAT ABOUT YOU?

It's a good time of year to see the shape of trees.

With Natalie deciding not to continue with Tree Year, I'd like to find another way of following the trees followed by people who are following trees. (If you see what  I mean!)

Yew bark, which can be vividly red when wet, turns pale in frost and ice.

I was already following trees before I came across Tree Year - I expect that's true of others too - though I hadn't been doing so in specific blocks of time - just trundling along with posts which said 'This is what's happening to that tree,' whenever it struck me to do so.

Felled and fallen trees can be very, very interesting.

Last week, I said I'd be following an elderberry tree for a while. Laura at Patio Patch is following a Wych Hazel. Elizabeth at Welsh Hills Again is following a Horse Chestnut.

It's good to see who lives on a tree!

If they (you) or anyone wants attention drawn to their 'special tree' posts on Loose and Leafy, let me know and I'll put a link at the foot of my next post - whatever it's about. No special day. No set time - just let me know if you post (either by leaving a comment or by emailing me at looseandleafy@googlemail.com). If enough people are following trees, I'll add a tab with a list at the top of the blog.

This Hart's Tongue Fern is growing on a fallen
Yew. See the Ladybird hiding between its icy leaves?

It doesn't have to be a living tree. Lots happens on dead trees too. And it makes sense too to follow a particular path through trees. To be terribly lax about language - anything goes! (Almost!)

And moss!

Esther Montgomery's letting me use one of her little drawings as a sort of motif for this. (You'll see it at the foot of this post.) If you want to use it too - you are welcome to do so.

And fungi on another fallen tree.

There's so much to see on and near trees, even when the weather is frosty and cold.

There are things to notice, even on trees which may have no leaves in spring.

This is where the tree with exposed roots (above) is supported by a tree on the other side of the path.

Do let me know about your trees!

Meanwhile, here's an elderberry shoot on 'my' tree. I'm rather pleased the tree I've chosen has lots of lichen. We'll be able to keep an eye on that too.

I'm a tree follower - what about you?

BLOGS FOLLOWING TREES

This list is already out of date - more blogs are added each time I post.
Soon, I'll put a complete list under a tab at the top of the blog.

(Let me know if you would like your blog added to the list - either by leaving a note in comments or email me at looseandleafy@googlemail.com whenever you post an update on ‘your tree’.)

Patio Patch

Welsh Hills Again

Garden’s Eye View

Windy Willow

The Blackberry Garden
Moongazy Girl
Gardening Ways
Small Matters
Tree Care Tips
On the Edge Gardening
Arigna Gardener

Hyde Daily Photo

Remember - you can also keep in touch with other tree-bloggers by signing up with

Treeblogging.com              

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For Posts where Bloggers

show a little of where they live -

Our World Tuesday