News from the world of trees 2021 #2

A game-changing year for trees?

It’s not every year that firefighters wrap the world’s largest living tree in an oversized aluminium blanket, notes Vox…

Here is another (very occasional) round-up of tree news articles from around the world – first one since April!

There are reasons. The only real news in the world this year has been Covid-19. This has squeezed out some of the more wacky stories I would previously have noticed.

I have been busy but I am also disillusioned. So many tree stories are either tragic tree disease and felling or attempts to plant, plant, plant. Not much new there.

To cap everything, it is very annoying that every story I point to asks you to accept cookies before you proceed and I know this puts off a lot of readers. So whether I continue with this theme is uncertain.

But for now click on each of the pictures if you would like to see the full stories.

Lone hawthorn on a beach is UK’s best

The Woodland Trust has named the Kippford hawthorn on a windswept cockleshell beach in Dumfries & Galloway as the British Tree of the Year…

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Merry Christmas everyone!

This is my favourite from the cards I sent out this Christmas – I don’t know why I tend to choose a hare image every time! It’s Winter Garden – Hare – by Deva Evans for the RSPB https://www.rspb.org.uk

After another depressing year living with Covid let’s try to take some cheer from the Christmas cards we have received…

Again the cards seem a bit subdued, but maybe that’s just my mood. Anyway, here are some of the designs that caught my eye. As usual, click on the image to go to the source, especially if it’s a charity.

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2021 tree following 12: Casting a long shadow

Afternoon shadow of the Lombardy poplar (Populus nigra ‘Italica’) in Victoria Park, Cardiff

I was up against it this time in trying to find an opportunity to visit the Lombardy poplar (Populus nigra ‘Italica’) I am following in Victoria Park, Cardiff. It has been quite wet and windy in the last month but when the sun shines it is glorious.

I managed to grab a moment with the tree on Friday afternoon as the sun was already low in the sky and the shadows were stretching out across the grass. It seemed sad and appropriate as it was the last time I would focus on this particular tree.

My abiding memory of this occasion was a grey squirrel that gazed down at me from a low branch on the tree throughout my whole visit.

Here are my pictures:

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Tree following link box for December 2021

Last of the colour – a maple in late November

For the last time in 2021 the monthly tree-following link box is open for contributions. It will stay open for your tree-related links until 7pm GMT on December 14.

Here in Cardiff late November and early December have been mostly cold, wet and sometimes very windy.

During the next week I hope to visit the Lombardy poplar tree I am monitoring in Victoria Park, not too far from home, but I wonder what the rest of you tree followers are up to?

I’m sure you will have something new to report. Any tree-related post is acceptable from contributors old and new.

Point to the post you would like to share, using the link box below. And please don’t forget to leave a comment.

If you are new to tree following, read all about the idea here.

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