Follow Follow Follow?

As promised here is the beech tree blog :-)

I mentioned earlier that to the south of my village once stood a great beech wood.  In the 1970s some of it made way for a housing estate.  Then in the 1980s more trees were cut down for further housing estates.

I didn't move to the village until 2004 when most of the house-building to the south of the village had finished (although more housing could be in the pipeline but the villagers are adamant that no more building should take place to the south).... the north east area has been extensively developed removing all the marshland that beautiful birds once frequented...... all in the name of progress.  Well I suppose if we keep on increasing our population we continue to need more housing. 

Sorry.... I digress.

Back to the beech trees.  Well..... as you know, I am following a tree for a year... a Japanese Flowering Cherry ... in my garden.  See here for details.  But I thought I should follow one of the mighty beech trees in my village.  I knew exactly which one I wanted to follow..... I speak to 'him' almost every day.... and have done for almost 8 years.

When I first moved here there were two beech trees standing closely together (about 8 feet apart) but the other one, a copper-coloured beech, was taken down about 4 years ago due to disease.

Here you can see the present beech tree to the top left and the stump of the copper beech to the bottom right.

The reason I know I want to follow this particular beech tree is because I believe this will be the last year of its life!  And this will become clearer as I show you the pictures of this mighty tree.

I don't know how old this tree is and I suppose I should research it. 
But it has been the victim of vandalism.......

..... from humans.....

..... and nature.......

If we take a closer look at the scaring hole ...........



.... and closer still......

..... we can see what is doing the damage.  I know the photos aren't brilliant but if we look even closer.....

..... I think we can see woodworm activity going on.  It is all very sad.  But maybe the tree will survive this onslaught.  The tree produced hundreds and hundreds of beechnuts....... and some casings are still on the tree.......

This year's leaf buds have formed and are on all of the branches..........

..... so let's hope that this tree is a fighter.

Have a great weekend.  More blogging next week :-)

Blessings, Willow x

I'm A Tree Follower

I love trees and have a favourite willow tree that resides on a nature reserve about half an hour from me.  I have been following it for about 5 years now.  I love the idea of Loose and Leafy's to follow a tree for a year in my blog... http://looseandleafy.blogspot.com/2012/02/its-good-time-of-year-to-see-shape-of.html. 
Seems like a really good idea.  So I'll try to update you each month on my chosen tree. 

I decided that my tree won't be my willow tree as the new owners of the nature reserve have restricted access to the area where the willow is.  I think my 2012 tree will be a five foot high Japanese Flowering Cherry that I rescued from a garden centre last year.  It was in such a sorry state and was in the 'Bargain Bin' coz it looked almost dead.  Well it has survived the winter and is now bursting into leaf.  So this is my choice.

Here is my tree in July 2011 after a couple of months of taking care of it (terrible picture I know... but I can't find another one).

Now it is coming into leaf.

It has quite a bit of lichen on it.... so I hope it is going to be ok. 

A little closer to show the lichen ......

.... and closer still.

The picture below shows a different type of lichen on my tree......

.... and closer......

.... and very close up.

It looks like someone sculptured some plasticine or clay and stuck it on.

It is lovely to see the leaves developing. 

Perhaps by next month the tree will be in full leaf and have some blossom developing.

The above photos were taken yesterday in sunshine.  Today we have rain!

But I went out to see how much the cherry tree had changed..... and here is what I saw......

..... rain drops and cobwebs (do those leaves look more open to you?)............

...... and more rain drops like jewels ......

The rain totally changes the look of the tree doesn't it.  Makes things look brighter, fresher......... and tomorrow all will be clean again........... and, hopefully, the sun will come out again.

Hope you enjoyed hearing about my tree.  I may follow another tree as well, but I've yet to decide :-)

Perhaps you will let me know if you are following a tree and then I can come and have a look at your blog.

Have a wonderful week.  Blessings, Willow x