Heroes Not Zombies

We’ve been having such changeable weather recently, each day wave after wave of heavy rain interspersed with periods of bright sunshine and blue sky. So, I took my chance when the sun came out and walked up to the edge of the wooded part of the garden.

I’d noticed this particular tangle of trees from the back window and was intrigued to explore it further. What caught my eye was the depth of entanglement….several different trees, now all without their leaves, each of them stretching their branches and twigs between and through each other.

I’ve cut away a lot of brambles, ivy and creepers from this particular group in this first year in the garden. You can see the huge iron rings which I found clasped tightly between the trees as they’ve grown up through them.

There are a number of pieces of old agricultural equipment scattered through this part of the garden. The hamlet where I live now was once a farm owned by several generations of one family. My house was originally the farm house and our gite was a large barn. I think these huge rings would have come from an old wine press, bits of which I’ve still to uncover in other parts of the garden. You can guess how many years ago they were thrown there from the fact the trees have lifted them up off the ground as they’ve grown.

The patterns of tree branches and twigs are endlessly fascinating. Although the pattern of growth occurs fairly simply by dividing and subdividing, throwing off new growth along the stems, the final positions and forms are completely unpredictable. There’s no way you could draw them in advance.

I love how all the elements in this photo are so intricately entangled. I love the diversity and co-existence you can see here. And of course all the creatures who live in and around these trees aren’t visible at the moment but I see the robin and the blue tits in here regularly, and recently saw the bright red flashes of two woodpeckers.

There are whole ecosystems in there. How lucky am I to be surrounded by such beauty and complexity?