Venerable trees

I love these ancient beech pollards. They have such wonderful characters.



Imagine seeing this Gryphon shape in the half-light or the moonlight! Like something from a Thomas Bewick engraving . .

As for "Knobby" well Nature has the truth, Art doesn't

The reason these beech are like this is because they were regularly pollarded by "the commoners" till 1874 or whatever when The Corporation of the City of London "rescued" the forest for the people from the encroachments and enclosures by wealthy landowners.
"Well done" . . . BUT . . . they then stopped all lopping rights ! Now you can't even take one log without being liable to prosecution.
Sometimes I do liberate odd bits I find. Today I saw loads of fresh-cut beech, oak, hornbeam and willow. But it's supposed to be left for some rare click-beetle they've found or "habitat" piles. Isn't man part of the equation? - haven't we always interacted with the woodlands and forests? Modern management is very unnatural and frustrating.

www.treewright.co.uk

A Forest in Winter

I've had a healing walk through Epping Forest today. From Waltham Abbey to Loughton. Although I got the bus part of the way home I reckon about 6 miles.
It was frosty and bright and fairly deep in the forest found a chair ! so I decided to have a little fire.

FIRE

We've got a lovely hot fire tonight - here's a photo to warm you up if you're feeling chilly. Yesterday in that restaurant where we had our lunch there were two flat-screens showing a log fire but with hardly any FUEL on !

I like to see the flames

TORMEK Grinder

Had a stroke today . .
When I was demoing at Didcot turners I mentioned that I was saving up for a Tormek. One of the club members said he'd bought a load of gear from the estate of a old turner who had recently died, and so he had one for sale. I went and picked it up today for £60 with a full set of jigs! and he threw in a ring tool as well - apparently he tried one and snapped the ring off. It involved a bit of driving but I consider that a right result. Only thing is the water bath is missing - but . . I've discovered a dealer near here AND downloaded the manual. Anyone out there got any tips ?

Rochester, Kent

We've been there today with my mum. Had a really nice meal of guinea fowl, buttered kale and giant chunky chips mmmm + raspberry cheesecake ice cream
Then we looked around in Baggins bookshop - the 'biggest' 2nd hand bookshop in England. Got "Made in England" by Dorothy Hartley for a couple of quid ! - a book that I've heard of and read about a lot but never actually seen
Also got Collins Guide to Tree Planting by Herbert Edlin - one of my heroes.
I love looking at books in the flesh rather than online although we have had some success recently selling books on Amazon.

It's a beautiful town on the River Medway with a proper castle and a cathedral and tons of interesting buildings of all eras - some great timber framed ones.
Also a very strong Dickensian connection and loads of antique and junk shops.


The website's been updated with this years diary dates & some stuff and pics about chaircaning.

Have a look www.treewright.co.uk

LINX

O.K. In non URL terms :-
www.boders.org.uk
&
www.treewright.co.uk

Links

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