Trees - Thematic Photography

There are some village trees you become attached to, like these sycamores which stand next door to our front garden.

These beech trees has just been trimmed with the Council's approval. You are not allowed to 'butcher' them.

They are right next to the footpath and from the size of their girth they must have stood there for at least 200 years.

Further up the road is the nearest walnut tree to our bungalow - 400 plus yards away.

I wonder every year if this is where the squirrels get the nuts I keep finding, buried in our back lawn.

As you will have seen it's too early yet for any of these to be in leaf.

However with the horse chestnut in the local wood there are the first signs of things to come.

In the woods themselves there are different signs of life in the trees.

A tree trunk with its roots ripped out of the ground

But check out all the young trees and saplings that surround it, promising to more than fill the gap that it has left.

Elsewhere in the wood there is little left of what was once a tree.

Back home I find the sycamores' revenge in the gravel of our pull-in.

Last year I had to weed out nearly 2000 of the damned things!

Guess I'll need a rest before I get down to that. Just one set of trees to move first.

For the 'inspiration' behind this post just visit Carmi at Thematic-photographic-418-trees.

Treetops - Thematic Photography

I'm spoilt for choice this week for Carmi's 'Treetops' theme as we are surrounded by trees in the village where I live. 

Here are two of my favourites from the small wood down the road which I photographed at regular intervals over a year.

Silver birch which has 'lost' its top

while the trees around have retained theirs. That hole is the result of woodpecker activity.

Spring hawthorns dwarfed by other trees

Treetops provide good cover for small birds like this.

A Blue Tit blends in

And for larger ones as well.

Wood Pigeon in a Sycamore  

The tree overhangs our garden.

Ash trees shrouded with Ivy

I wonder how long it will be before the Ivy wins and they lose their tops like the one on the left. Meanwhile I just have to lean back in my office chair to enjoy their presence.

On my morning walks there is a tree I always check to see whether it's still there - it's dead and keeps losing bits of its top to high winds.

Dead Ash tree - December 2013

On the same walk early in the year I can hear noises coming from the top of large Beech trees.

Rookery nook.

One of my favourites is a tree that overhangs the lane.

Walnut tree

It's the nearest one to us that I know and must be the one the local squirrels raid for the nuts that they bury in our lawn.

Across the road from us are treetops that photograph well after a white frost.

That concludes my treetop tour. For other takes on the theme swing over to Thematic-photographic-273-treetops.