World Image Issue 47 August 2017

As a historian I have come to look at the buildings
and wonder about the histories they might have
witnessed since they were built. Indeed I have
researched and written those histories, some a few
hundred years old others just a few decades.
Yet the tree on the left of the picture above has
probably stood on this village green for in excess of
300 years, others in the area considerably longer. I
wonder what changes they have witnessed.
So today I decided to take a closer look, and I saw
the scars of mans intervention. But I also saw the
majesty of the tree carved into its very skin.
The bark cracked with age becoming home to
insects, its great branches holding the canopy aloft
so that the birds might have shade and protection for
their nests.
In the natural world these great trees are also quite
clever, they know when winter is approaching with
its icy winds and strong gales. They start to change
when the weather is still warm and mild.
We are excused to the thinking that the biggest
threat to these magnificent structures are the
powerful winds that rage across the planet.
In fact the greatest threat to their survival is
humanity. The mighty oak forests of Britain were
destroyed to provide wood for ships so that ancient
mariners could explore the world and dominate the
seas.
Smaller trees are cut and burned for fuel. Some
forests are set alight because ignorant people do not
know how to use fire, or perhaps they do and use it
to destroy the woodlands for fun.
If we allow the trees to grow and follow their
normal cycle of life, our children would have more
to wonder at.
What ever happened to the balmy days sitting under
such trees with a good book and a picnic hamper,
doing nothing more than listening to the wildlife.
Gordon Longmead
Website = photosociety.net Page 5 email = magazine@photosociety.net