Month: November 2014

The Plane Tree – The Most Valued, Literally, European Tree

~ Ashley ~ Leave a comment

europeantrees

The Plane Tree would find little competition if we were to choose a tree for Europe – a tree which helps define a common heritage and culture for the majority of European citizens. It is also a tree whose current threatened circumstances are the result of the Second World War, a reminder in these days when we can so easily forget the circumstances of war, that it continues to affect our landscapes and therefore us.

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Its presence in our urban environment allow Plane’s to be the most readily recognisable tree to the majority, this also means it is a tree that few celebrate – it is common. And indeed WWI soldiers would surely have associated the landscape of the Plane lined roads of Northern Europe with the awfulness of the war itself.

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It remains a tree that evokes so many memories for so many Europeans. Its dominance as a ‘landscaping’

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A random walk along the Lough shore

~ Ashley ~ 3 Comments

Yesterday we walked a short stretch of the shore line of Lough Neagh. It was after mid-day and we needed to stretch our legs after an early lunch. The sun was very bright in an icy blue sky with just a few soft clouds.  The surface of the water was like glass.

I took a couple of photographs with my mobile phone.  It was so bright that I couldn’t actually see the detail of what I was photographing.

lough neagh 01lough neagh 03 Black trees,

a few leaves;

winter almost here.

The Art of Walking

~ Ashley ~ 8 Comments

08 on the Mourne Way Jun13

Into the Forest

Others have walked this way,
as the surface of the track
is rutted and worn

but I have seen no-one today.

The trees arch high above me,
their canopy
almost closing out the sky.

The path before me
curves into the distance,
going deeper and deeper into the forest;
another bend,
another fretted view between the trees.

An easy wind
whispers in the branches

and high above,
a crow calls.

My foot crunches a fallen twig,

and still

the quiet presence of this place
slips deeper and deeper
into my being.

(I wrote this poem after a walk in the Mourne Mountains last summer and then seeing a painting by the Japanese artist Kawasai Hasui 1883-1957). (And then re-wrote it when I viewed it on-line).