I aim to make a record of these trees, to store this landscape as it stands, while knowing that over the next few years our horizons may continue to lose these beautiful trees to ash dieback. Encouraged by a recent workshop with the local council in which we measured and recorded some notable trees and hedgerows, I took up the task of recording and measuring all of the notable ash trees that live around the base of the Tor.
Most of July was spent upon the lower banks of the Tor. At this time, certain routes around the Tor are now impassable to humans without a scythe or willingness to bury themselves waist-height in stingers, they are vaguely trodden and easily lost, where badger paths disappear into golden tunnels. The paths themselves, usually kept trodden and visible by the sheep, are now almost invisible, relying on smaller mammals to keep them active. This display of colours is soundtracked by the constant hiss of grass and crickets, and the rattle of leaves left too long without water, hot sounds that make the hues more vivid and intensify the humid heat during my recent sweaty circumambulations. The English Oak Green contrasts and compliments the golden grasses, while the regal colour scheme is continued by the coarsely textured deep maroon red of dock seed, softened by thistle’s creamy plumes as they set their fairy seeds to drift lazily across the paths. The oak trees on the North West of the Tor, usually nibbled at grazing height, this year, have been allowed to flourish with sprays of leaves and peduncles full of acorns now extending further with a spurt of Lammas growth. In contrast, the grasses in the fields across Stone down have long been cut for hay, leaving the ground bare and raw, now gorged and cracking in the Summer sun. This year, upon the tiers of the Tor, the sheep have not been allowed to graze, allowing the grasses to develop fully into golden swathes that swell and roll on the crossing winds.
0 kommentar(er)
