Who said that I love oaks? I suppose I might have mentioned it now and again…
Here’s a picture I took in August 2007, at the National Botanic Gardens Of Wales which is near Carmarthen. The oak itself is huge and must have been around for hundreds of years.
I live quite close to Ystradfellte Waterfalls, known to a lot of people as Glyn-Neath Waterfalls. It is part of the Brecon Beacons National Park and is therefore protected from development. There are some clumps of planted forestry here and there but the interesting part is the natural woodland that surrounds the falls. It is made up mainly of oaks, hazels and birches. All that is very normal until you see the sizes and shapes of them. They grow in such harsh conditions they are forced to curl in every different direction just to hang onto the cliffs they are growing on. (more…)
We went to Porth-Yr-Ogof yesterday to do a spot of caving. For those who don’t know, it is a very large cave system in Wales which contains the largest unsupported cavern in Europe and 2 miles of tunnels. The valley around the cave is like something out of Jurassic park. It contains a lot of strange looking trees covered in moss. (more…)
Here is a photo of a very large oak tree near my house. It is leafing all over at the moment trying to decide where to grow it’s next branches from.
Inspiration can come from many places but I feel the best place for it is from natural trees in the wilds. Trees can become very twisted on their own without human interference. Many people who make bonsai want them to look natural and the best places to see exactly what they should look like are full sized trees. Read on for photos. (more…)
This morning I spotted a fantastic tree which goes to show you can have a great looking tree with many trunks. I think it is a cypress, that’s my guess anyway. See below. (more…)