Horse Chestnuts in Bloom

I had a little comment conversation with Joan at My Quality Day about chestnut and horse chestnut trees. So I thought I'd display these gorgeous specimens in Poole Park. I was lucky enough to catch them in full bloom in May a couple of years ago. Must remember to visit again this year at the right time.

I've discovered a few facts about these trees in the UK, that you might find interesting. Like me, the Victorians loved to visit the flowering horse chestnuts and, around the start of the 20th century, Chestnut Sundays were introduced, when large groups of people would take their picnics to the park and take in the vistas of trees in the flowering season.

Horse chestnuts, of course, produce conkers, beloved of 10 year old and thereabouts boys and tomboys. The small Northamptonshire village of Ashton hosts the World Conker Championships on the second Sunday  of October each year. The first recorded game of conkers was on the Isle of Wight in 1848, year of revolutions in Europe. A possible reason for the name of the tree is that conkers can be medicinal for horses

Anyway I hope our horse chestnuts will remain blight free so that we can continue to enjoy them adorned with their candle like flowers each year when May comes around.

Wordless Wednesday: Silhouettes

New Poem

I've created a new poem, Nature's Kaleidoscope.

It has been snapped up by Marc for his Folding Mirror blog, so you need to head over there if you'd like to check it out.  He's found a rather better image for it than mine as well.

Seeing the verses on the screen, I'm not sure about the last line now.  It may have to change.  What do you think?

A Willow

I love willow trees. This beautiful specimen is in Richmond Park's Isabella Plantation in Greater London. I took the picture in April when I spent a day there with my granddaughter. It was a beautiful day and like lots of other people, we had taken a picnic. You can just make out some picnickers on the grass behind the tree.

Our Blossom Tree

I took some pictures of this tree in our tiny front garden through the spare bedroom window this morning. We don't know what kind of tree it is and the falling leaves made such a mess in the autumn that we were considering removing it after checking that we were allowed to with the local council. Another reason for that is that it does block some of the light I want in the house. Now we have seen it in all its glory, I don't think I have the heart. Instead I think we should help it out by removing the ivy that could be strangling it to death.

Blog to Plant a Tree for Free

Thanks to Best Travel Pictures in the World, I’m about to get a tree planted for my blog. The latest post there pointed me to this initiative to reforest the 5,500 acres of Plumas National Forest in California with 792,000 trees by the Arbor Day Foundation. The area at Plumas was devastated by fire in 2007 and replanting has started this spring.

The “My blog is carbon neutral” initiative, was originally started in Germany by the “Make it Green” programme, that has the goal to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. A tree is planted for each blog that participates thereby neutralising the blog’s carbon footprint for the next 50 years! Every tree counts! Everyone can make a small contribution to the environment and you can too.

Just write a short blog post about the programme and include one of the buttons. You can get to them by clicking on my button above or in my side bar. Send the link to your blogpost to CO2-neutral@kaufda.de and they will plant a tree for you, neutralising the carbon dioxide emissions of your blog.

Summer Winds

The weather is so cold and frosty, snowy for some, in the UK. I’m hoping my daughter will not have any problems driving down from London tomorrow, when she brings my granddaughter for their Christmas visit.

In the meantime, I thought I’d look for something different about the weather, and something uplifting to look forward to. I found these two verses in my haiku diary from last year, and the photo is of Tintinhull garden in June.

In May

lacy tree tops dance
partnered by amorous winds
and flying blossom.

In June

tree branches roll, like
wave tops in stormy weather.
Flowers gaily prance.

Egyptian Evening Haiku

Egypt nights fall fast.
Magical tree silhouettes
on hotel terrace.