Old News Comes into its Own

As soon as Denzil asked us to focus on tree bark for this week’s Nature Photo Challenge, I remembered a visit we’d had to Westonbirt Arboretum with my daughter-in-law’s parents. I blogged about it at the time: it was all but ten years ago. Time to re-purpose this old post!

‘Trees are the earth’s endless effort to speak to the listening heaven’*

September 22nd, 2013

On Friday our co-in-laws took us to Westonbirt Arboretum.  If you’re spending a few days round Bristol and Bath there’s no better place to recharge your batteries.  You could pass the morning in the Old Arboretum, a carefully designed landscape dating from the 1850’s.  There are something like two and a half thousand varieties of tree – 16,000 specimens in all,  from all over the world, planted according to ‘picturesque’ principles of the 18th and 19th centuries, offering beautiful vistas, enchanted glades and stately avenues.  After a light lunch in the on-site restaurant you could go on to explore the Silk Woods an ancient, semi-natural woodland, or the grassy meadows of the Downs.

It was Robert Holford who designed and encouraged the planting of the Arboretum, back in the mid 19th century.  This was a period when plant-hunters were bringing new and exotic species back from their world-wide travels. Holford was able to finance some of these expeditions, and the Arboretum contains many of the specimens his scientific adventurers brought back.

Truly, it’s a magical place.   We arrived, let out a collective sigh, and simply allowed  stress and worry to fall away.  Strolling about, we gazed upwards at trees whose end-of-summer leaves seemed to be fingering the clouds, into copses where we could glimpse others already turning to the ochres and russets of Autumn, and then closely at the trees themselves.  It was the bark that caught our attention close up.  Smooth and silvery, brown and knobbly, grey and wrinkled, the variety astonished us.  Take a look at these.  And if you get a chance to visit this Arboretum, at any time of year, then take it.

Common beech
Quercus robor
Californian buckeye
Prunus avium
Toona sinensis
Manchurian cherry
Metasequoia Glytostroboides
Japanese bush spruce
Pseutonsuga Menziesii
Norway spruce
Lodgepole pine
Common yew
Acer platanoides
Thuja plicata
Sessile oak
Giant sequoia ‘Wellington’
Japanese cedar
Scots pine

*Rabindrath Tagore

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Author: margaret21

I'm retired and live in North Yorkshire, where I walk , write, volunteer and travel as often as I can.

44 thoughts on “Old News Comes into its Own”

  1. Sheltering from the rain on Saturday under a humble sycamore, I had ample time to look properly at its bark which is quite beautiful.

    I’m glad you enjoyed Westonbirt. Living in Bath for many years, I was fortunate enough to visit it for free. On lovely autumn Sundays it was a favourit treat.

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  2. Trees are fascinating, this place looks wonderful. Imagine how exciting it must have been all those years ago when plant hunters returned with a new find!

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    1. Yes. And this lot seem to have been thoughtful and organised. It’s the one who came back and widely distributed the likes of Himalayan Balsam that I can’t forgive.

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  5. I was fortunate enough to visit during my 8+ yrs in Devon. Visited Bath and Bristol quite a few times and bought seriously (too) expensive furniture. Had wonderful times, great friends, enjoyed the peace and calm of those magnificent trees. What a happy memory.
    btw, I also take tons of barks & rinds pics. They are all so different and special.

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  11. I don’t do this challenge, but so many others do that I sometimes become sensitised to the week’s topic and notice examples around me. I was looking at some interesting bark yesterday and now know it was probably sessile oak, so thanks for that!

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  12. I’ve heard good things previously about Westonbirt and your descriptions and photos confirm everything I’ve been told. We really must visit one day! I love your gallery of bark close-ups 😀

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  13. very nice and informative! tree bark is one of those things that can easily be overlooked but inspecting it closely is an inspiring revelation of textures and material, perfect for photography.

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  14. If you love trees as I do Margaret, I highly recommend The Overstory by Richard Powers. It’s an amazing (somewhat long) story centered around trees. One of my favorite books ever. Love, love, love your images in this one.

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  22. Pingback: Your photos of tree bark – Denzil Nature

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