Oak trees

Seven years ago in October, I collected acorns from the really old oak trees in Pope’s Meadow. I planted about 18 in pots. Many germinated. I didn’t count . I wish I had, but I didn’t know then that I would be so interested now. I took the healthiest and planted them together in an extra rain butt stand. Now they are seven years old. This autumn, I will choose two growing at the edge and plant them each alone in a suitable pot. They will  hopefully grow on !

Today, I visited the trees where I had picked up the acorns and they have their first green leaves coming out. A couple of weeks ago, they were just a promise.

Back in the garden, the red of new leaves so much the colours of autumn will soon be fresh, bright green.  It is hard to imagine that these seven year old stems could one day be as big as the trunks I painted. There are moments of wander!

Here are a few more facts about oak trees:

They are hardwood in the genus Quercus of the Beech family. There are five hundred species of oak, both deciduous and evergreen.

The tree starts off with smooth, silvery –  brown bark, which becomes rugged and fissured with age.

The leaves are spirally arranged,often with five or six rounded lobes and longer than they are wide.

These leaves and the acorns contain enough tannin to be toxic to cattle, but pigs can digest it safely.

Now, some different  thinking:

I am a born- again atheist, so there isn’t going to be a funeral I will be buried in a linen wrap in a cardboard coffin in my forest with an oak tree planted on my head.

Felix Dennis

I think there are some good ideas there. I would like to have:

the linen wrap

the cardboard box

I wish I owned a forest, but one of my young oak trees planted at my head would be lovely.

But then my belief is different.

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye at the last trumpet sound, me, the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed.

For this mortal must put on immortality. “

(Bible 1 Corinthians 15: 52 -54)

“God will swallow up death in victory; and the LORD GOD will wipe away all tears from off all faces. And it will be said in that day. Lo, this is our God; we have waited for Him, and He will save us.

This is the Lord we have waited for Him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. “

Bible Isaiah 25: 8,9 (Sandy’s belief, faith, hope.)

The trees in the meadow look well today, but I believe that in 2006 a diseas came to the UK which was then described in this country.  It is called Acute Oak Decline. ( AOD). It mainly affects oak trees over the age of 50. The tree bleeds or oozes a dark fluid from small lessions/splits in the bark. Unlike chronic oak decline, acute oak decline can lead to death within 4 to 5 years of symptoms appearing. The diseases attacks when the tree is weakened by environmental  factors such as water and nutrients.

It is sad to note that a third of oak species are threatened with extinction due to climate change, invasive pests, and habitat loss.

If you would like to know more about Acute Oak Decline, press on How An Ancient Oaks Wisdom Fights Disease.

One last look at a majestic tree in the meadow.

Take care

Sandy 🙂

Every acorn on the ground is just as alive as the three-hundred-year-old oak tree that towers over it.

Hope Jaren

Today’s mighty oak is just yesterday’s nut that held its ground.

David Icke.