As a child many many years ago I used to play in the lane at the bottom of our garden, it was just an average lane, rutted tracks, plenty of wild flowers, grass, hawthorn bush’s and trees of all sorts and sizes.
One day whilst playing with friends a large dog escaped from a garden and came for us, we ran every which way as you do when frightened. I saw a tree and hastily climbed up onto a bough and stayed there! Too frightened to get down I stayed there my arms wrapped round the trunk, eventually my brothers came looking for me and rescued me from my place of safety.
That incident started my love of trees, it was a place of safety for me and is a place of safety and a home for much of our wildlife today from the tiniest insect to squirrels and birds and to us all in times of need.
They line avenues, they break up the harsh lines of some landscapes, they offer peace and tranquility to those who seek it, they provide wood for carpentry, they clean the air we breathe and they look absolutely stunning in the Autumn as the leaves turn to wonderful shades of brown and orange. No two trees are the same in shape, height, width, branches, the bark makes incredible one off patterns no human could ever devise, the leaves have wonderful shapes to help identification.
Now I live at the top of a lane not unlike my childhood lane, it is lined with trees even to the extent that tree trunks form the edge of the tarmac, in summer with the sun beating down it is wonderfully shady, in winter the trees help keep the worst of the snow away, so now as then they are a sanctuary for me.
Greg Laver (@natureoncam)
See more of Greg’s photos in the Love Trees gallery.
