Tag: Beech

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Winter’s Decorations

Dried-up fern makes curly patterns

The bright city lights have little appeal for me this year. Nature leaves out decorations for those who look – and the human imagination has all the tools needed to play along.

A dried-up fern provides row after row of Christmas trees, viewed one way; party streamers or garlands of tinsel, another.  I could contend that the plant had just taken a deep breath and puffed out a whole load of party blowers, captured here at peak toot, but you don’t need me to labour the point.

I’ll just share one more picture, with your blessing…
Continue reading “Winter’s Decorations”

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A Peek into an English Bluebell Wood

Bluebell wood

Bluebells woods have a mysterious air. To get the full effect, you have to imagine everything moving in the lightest breeze, bees humming in the bells, birds singing as they attend their nests, and the odd grey squirrel bouncing around.

Bluebell wood

Light dapples through the tender young beech and chestnut leaves, moving across one patch then another; brightening or fading as clouds float between the woodland and the sun. Continue reading “A Peek into an English Bluebell Wood”

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Trust The Great Beech For a Bold, Bright Winter Garden

Autumn beech leaves
Beech leaves dry to a striking bronzy-brown

In Phantastes by George MacDonald, a country maiden warns the hero, Anodos, to shun the Ash and the Alder, but says he can ‘trust the Oak, and the Elm, and the great Beech.’ Sure enough, Anodos meets a Beech tree with a voice ‘like a solution of all musical sounds’ who longs to be a woman. She invites him to cut lengths from her hair, and uses them to create a protective girdle of beech leaves for his magical journey. Continue reading “Trust The Great Beech For a Bold, Bright Winter Garden”