Common trees for common people. No fruit, but plenty of fresh air. Kings hid in them. Poachers risked their lives under them.
The London Plane. Plane trees for plain people.
I miss the great Elms. I miss the wide Elm boards of the English country houses.
I miss the Gypsy charcoal-burners and their Autumnal Willow harvests.
Yeomen with hearts of Oak shot wooden arrows from Yew bows.
Uncommon people.
This is a poem. And it's beautiful.
ReplyDeleteDid your English Elm trees fall victim to the disease that claimed ours?
Yes they did. In fact, we blame you!
DeleteWell, we blamed importers, not you personally!
DeleteThink of all gone extinct in our lifetime. The American chestnut! Birch, firs going extinct. Blame us all.
ReplyDeleteThere are a lot of things going extinct in Australia right now.
DeleteBoth Ash and Horse Chestnut now looking sick as well as Elm and Larch.
ReplyDeleteWe need trees in many ways
More than the wood.
DeleteThank you for this. x
ReplyDeleteDon't mention it.
DeleteWavy Elm weatherboarding will be greatly missed; straight cut Pine boards don't have the same allure.
ReplyDeleteI would rather have Pine boards and see a great Elm in the middle of an ancient field.
DeleteKing Charles 11 hid in an English Oak in Boscabel, he also took refuge in White Ladies Priory in Brewood where I went to school. Some nuggets of information that flash by as suddenly as we remember, Thank you that inspired writing.
ReplyDeleteSo you went to school with Charles the Second?
DeleteThere was a great Elm tree in the lane where I grew up. If ever I go back there I still miss the blank space that in once occupied.
ReplyDeleteFor quite a few years the dead ones were left standing starkly. I even miss those.
DeleteWhy isn't the squirrel busy at the oak tree collecting acorns? She called in sick and went to the beech.
ReplyDeleteHmm. NEXT!
DeleteAn out-of-context question: How does one unfollow Amy Saia?
ReplyDeleteGo to your reading list on dashboard and take her out I guess.
DeleteI don't think that works, but I'll have another go.
DeleteShe's not even on my bleedin' reading list! She's a pain in the arse, as is The Real Illuminati, who is also not on my reading list.
DeleteYou could take her off your blog list underneath here. I don't know if that helps but if you don't want her then no point in having her on the blog list.
DeleteI've tried that too.
DeleteI used to live close to the Boscobel oak - associated with Charles II - rather a disappointing tree when I last saw it thirty years ago just before I moved up here. Before that I lived close to Edwinstowe and the Major Oak which was huge but in a sorry state. Expect it is still standing but it was propped up all the way round in those days.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, Weave. I think there is (along with everything else) some conjecture about the oak in question, and even about the story itself. I like to believe in everything, as some around here accuse me of in any case.
Delete