rhondacrockett (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rhondacrockett) wrote2014-05-05 07:00 pm
rhondacrockett) wrote2014-05-05 07:00 pm
Entry tags:
I Like Monday 18
Ok, this will be the last nature-based one for a while. This Monday, I like... ash trees.
Left hand image taken from Challice Consulting - copyright unknown; right hand image taken from Science Photo Library - copyright Bob Gibbons/Science Photo Library.
Again, like hawthorn, this is a case of familiarity breeding appreciation; there are a lot of ash trees around my family's farm, growing in the hedgerows. They're tall and slim, with trunks as grey as stones. I still find that bizarre - shouldn't tree trunks be brown, not grey? While I was growing up, part of our boundary ditch was lined by about eight or nine ash trees, interspersed amongst the hawthorn. I could hear the water in the ditch chattering away as it flowed over stones, an irresistable sound to a child. As I tried to find a hole through the hedge where I could glimpse the miniature rapids below, the ashes were a safe and non-thorny support to lean against. I will always associate them with the sound of running water, with things hidden and half-seen. (Dad recently cut that hedge back completely, partly to get rid of dead wood, partly so he could clean the ditch out. The water is now fully visible from the bank - and somehow, it doesn't sound half so pretty or intriguing or noisy as it did when it was behind those ash trees *sadface*.)
They have beautiful leaves, simple, elegant. Ask a child to draw a leaf, they'll draw something similar to an ash leaf: a long, smooth-edged oval, pointed at both ends with a line up the middle and veins branching off in chevrons. It's like having defied convention with their stone-grey trunks, they decided to produce the most archetypal leaf ever! Arranged in neat rows of pairs, one on the left, one on the right, they look like outstretched arms, with a single one at the top for the head. I also like their colour; I prefer light, fresh greens that glow a little yellow in the sun. And then there are those sooty-black buds. I had understood that the reason for the name "ash" was because the buds made it look like someone had tried to singe the tree, but Wikipedia says no, the name actually derives from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "spear"... I prefer my explanation. There's something cheering about a tree which looks burnt and damaged but is actually thriving.
Ashes are my favourite trees. I only hope that the ones Dad cut back will grow up again and make that ditch something secret and magical again...
Left hand image taken from Challice Consulting - copyright unknown; right hand image taken from Science Photo Library - copyright Bob Gibbons/Science Photo Library.
Again, like hawthorn, this is a case of familiarity breeding appreciation; there are a lot of ash trees around my family's farm, growing in the hedgerows. They're tall and slim, with trunks as grey as stones. I still find that bizarre - shouldn't tree trunks be brown, not grey? While I was growing up, part of our boundary ditch was lined by about eight or nine ash trees, interspersed amongst the hawthorn. I could hear the water in the ditch chattering away as it flowed over stones, an irresistable sound to a child. As I tried to find a hole through the hedge where I could glimpse the miniature rapids below, the ashes were a safe and non-thorny support to lean against. I will always associate them with the sound of running water, with things hidden and half-seen. (Dad recently cut that hedge back completely, partly to get rid of dead wood, partly so he could clean the ditch out. The water is now fully visible from the bank - and somehow, it doesn't sound half so pretty or intriguing or noisy as it did when it was behind those ash trees *sadface*.)
They have beautiful leaves, simple, elegant. Ask a child to draw a leaf, they'll draw something similar to an ash leaf: a long, smooth-edged oval, pointed at both ends with a line up the middle and veins branching off in chevrons. It's like having defied convention with their stone-grey trunks, they decided to produce the most archetypal leaf ever! Arranged in neat rows of pairs, one on the left, one on the right, they look like outstretched arms, with a single one at the top for the head. I also like their colour; I prefer light, fresh greens that glow a little yellow in the sun. And then there are those sooty-black buds. I had understood that the reason for the name "ash" was because the buds made it look like someone had tried to singe the tree, but Wikipedia says no, the name actually derives from an Anglo-Saxon word meaning "spear"... I prefer my explanation. There's something cheering about a tree which looks burnt and damaged but is actually thriving.
Ashes are my favourite trees. I only hope that the ones Dad cut back will grow up again and make that ditch something secret and magical again...