Tuesday 11th May 2021 - Under the greenwood tree

 This post has been procrastinating itself for a day or so, which means I will have forgotten most of what I meant to put in it.

"That's a relief," I hear you murmur under your breath.

Tuesday was a 'get up and go' sort of day, so I got up in time for us to went somewhere. We went to see the Queen Elizabeth I oak tree, reckoned to be possibly around 1000 years old. The weather was sort of pleasant; clouds and wind and sun, and lovely when the clouds and and wind desisted and let the sun do its thing. You know, that shining and feeling warm thing.

How many layers do you need to wear to go for a walk these days? One fewer than you decided upon, unless it was one more. However I had gloves and a 'draught excluder'; one of those 'neck tubes' which fill the gap between neck and collar, and they made all the difference.

This tree, then. I have had a whim to visit the oldest trees in the area this year; church crawling, our previous 'out and about' project has been on hold since last Summer, and I had a sudden revelation that many of these trees are bound to be in wide open spaces where keeping your distance from 'mapils' (middle-aged persons in lycra', whether running or cycling, and joggers and dog-walkers would not be an issue.

A few moments on Google turned up the Queen Elizabeth Oak; park at the Benbow ponds just outside Midhurst and walk up the hill, past the next pond, and - there it will be - and - there it certainly was;

It is a 'sessile' oak (now I need to do some research needed on different kinds of oak trees) and the thinking is it is that peculiar shape because it may have been pollarded at some time in the past.

I made a video because the weather and the clouds and the birdsong was so wonderful. The grey patch over to the left at the beginning is actually a bank of bluebells; when the sun shone on them they glowed. You might even see the hawk that was circling above us (it looks like an annoying bit of fluff that needs to be brushed of the screen, floating from left to right). The funny 'snorkel' sound is the oxygen concentrator supplying me with roughly 4 litres per minute of oxygen which was a massive help in walking up the fairly steep hill.

O wow! I have posted a video! this is so exciting! Watch out, I might do this again....

I have got myself a copy of 'Meetings With Remarkable Trees' to do some research for future ventures tree hunts.