National Tree Week

Thanks to this entry in Usksider’s Photo Blog I was reminded that National Tree Week started last Wednesday and continues through to Monday 3 December, which makes it a long week!

Google this and you will see that there are surprisingly few relevant references to this event. Of these this one looks to be one of the more informative.

All nature lovers have an affinity with trees as they are good to look at, provide food and homes for much of our wildlife and are a good, and popular, subject for photographers and poets.

This poem is appropriate for the time of year, as is the image.

A Whisper of Leaves by Margaret Ingall

The sound of the Autumn is soft as a sigh,

A whisper of leaves as a breeze passes by,

In colours bravura, both brilliant and bold,

She’s clad in red-russet, in pumpkin and gold.

Her perfume’s distinctive, of bonfire and smoke,

sharp as black leaf mould, and mellow as oak.

Her touch is of tree-bark, enduring and rough,

crisp as a corn stalk and conker-shell tough.

Her bounty is rich as the gown that she wears,

a tumble of berries, ripe apples and pears,

She pauses too briefly, then turning her face

abandons the world to the Winter’s embrace.