... as well as a couple of miscellaneous finds from the 'run' at Cottesbrooke.
What got me thinking was this.
See how the tree has given up its crown? It has receded. This struck me for the first time as I had been reading Richard Mabey's The Ash and the Beech. In it he talks of the natural aging of trees. He argues against our tendency to see this as sickness or decline and regard it as the natural and rather graceful way in which trees cope with their later years. The standing dead wood offers great habitat. I saw a little raptor - either a kestrel or a sparrowhawk - fly out as I took this photo.
This gracious aging makes me think of us and our desperate attempts to stay looking young and doing what we did at thirty or whenever. Holding off the decline. Maybe there's something to be said for acceptance? Though of course the tree hasn't thrown in the towel. It continues to flourish... it just retreats.
As I went on, I kept an eye out for the oaks and took great pleasure in the dark green of the leaves, the deep cover they provide and how they move and rustle in the breeze.
Further along, I checked out the little oak baby - in the background is the parent tree (I guess).
And in the hedge is a sapling which may well grow into majesty.
Here is the sapling in front of the parent tree.
When I was visiting an old ash by a stream, I saw new holes in the bank... water voles? I put my finger in and the hole stretched further than I could reach so it does look like a home.
Finally - swan update. Still four cygnets!
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