It’s standard practice to cut down living trees and make them into painted fences or decorated trinket boxes, but rare to leave a dead tree standing and turn it into sculpture. Continue reading “Keeping Fondren Funky: Tree Art by Bill Taylor”
Using Birch in the Garden for Light, Rhythm and Texture
Today, I’m featuring gardens that use birch trees to great effect. Flower lovers sometimes overlook trees, but if you can imagine these gardens without their chalky trunks, you’ll take away more than you might anticipate. Our eyes would hunger for them, were they absent. Continue reading “Using Birch in the Garden for Light, Rhythm and Texture”
Life In Colour: Silhouettes of Trees
I took these pictures a fortnight ago when the trees still had enough autumn leaves to gleam in the sun and when a thick jumper would be sure to become a hazard at some point during a walk. Storm Arwen blasting through has changed that. Continue reading “Life In Colour: Silhouettes of Trees”
Wordless Wednesday: Heart-shaped Leaf
Quercus virginiana: Southern Live Oak Cloaked in Ferns
We don’t have live oaks (Quercus virginiana, Southern live oak) in Lancashire, more’s the pity, as they are spectacular trees. Continue reading “Quercus virginiana: Southern Live Oak Cloaked in Ferns”
Surfaced Tree Roots Worn By Passing Feet
My first picture provides some context for those that follow. A narrow walker’s path tracks a drainage ditch along the edge of a wood. Often muddy, part of its fascination comes from the patches of tree roots that weave through each other just above ground level.
These roots are familiar, yet I marvel at them each time I pass. Have they been left behind as soil eroded or did they surface to find air in a boggy place? Are their buttressed forms better able to anchor trees that lean out into the neighbouring meadow for sunlight, or are they seeking out better soil?
Some look more like hands or arms than roots, others remind me of alligators; many bear marks left by decades of passing feet. Continue reading “Surfaced Tree Roots Worn By Passing Feet”
Two From The Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden
The Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden is one of a select few in the US where tropical plants can be grown outside all year round. The garden is built around a series of lakes and a collection of palm trees and many of its vistas are superb. Continue reading “Two From The Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden”
Susan Rushton 