I wonder if the keen English gardener ever thought that the fashionable ‘Californian Giant’ they planted as a sapling in 1865 would eventually take over their whole garden 🤭🌲

I wonder if the keen English gardener ever thought that the fashionable ‘Californian Giant’ they planted as a sapling in 1865 would eventually take over their whole garden 🤭🌲

It’s a surreal moment when you actually see Giant Sequoia in the wild for the first time Your mind is conditioned to nature on TV with music as a background. So when you finally see them close up, you kind of expect a fanfare of trumpets, but the silence is deafening

The slight gust of wind you feel in woodland is the brush of a passing angel's wing

Would you like a worm from Bert?

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning how to dance in the rain Vivian Greene

Le gros chêne de la Blandinière - Mauléon, France See the follow post for how big this tree is 😯🌳 👇

As I own ancient woodland my wife owns the garden (Bert 🐦‍⬛actually owns it, but don’t tell her 😬) Her love of flowers is a Bach concerto to my woodland Beethoven

Big Dave is looking on as a young female blackbird bounces down the lawn Our gravity challenged pigeon can see she bounces like Bert, & sings the same ‘found a big worm’ song as Bert It’s because it is a mini Bert from nest #2 of the year, taking advantage of Bert’s absence

Who is missing our English Bluebells? A bluebell a week until they wake again next year #4

A baby of a Giant Redwood at 165 years old, but already one of the tallest trees in Tonbridge, the Kingdom of Kent

Oak with no name, or a name only known to other oaks - Park Sonsbeek, Arnhem, the Netherlands Very close to where my uncle fell fighting for the British 1st Airborne Division in 1944 Photo: Jeroen Philippona

It’s nearly time 🥳

A rare colour photo of the 3rd Royal West Kent Acorn Regiment prior to their mass airborne jump of 1944

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver

Nature’s Gold, England’s Glory

Say hello to my little friend

If you don’t like English Bluebells, then I am afraid we cannot be friends

The Silverstone Oak That’s not his official name, but he is an oak, and we are at Silverstone Motor Racing Circuit

With the inspiring name of ‘The Big Oak' 🙄 this Southern Live Oak chilling in Thomasville, Georgia is older than the town, state & country it lives in Photo: Ken Badgley

The leaves of an oak tree get successively larger the further down you go This allows all leaves access to sunlight, and protect the tree from excessive wind Oak trees know

Nothing you say today will teach you anything. You must learn by listening and watching

Trees are rubbish at hide and seek 🙄

Big Dave the pigeon misses Bert Wild birds have the rapid scanning for threats head movements, but there are longer looks at Bert’s favourite tree interspersed He flew down the garden earlier, as a noise scared him, but gravity is cruel to Big Dave, & it was quite short

People ask why there are not more Bert stories It’s simple. Bert is real, & whilst it would be easy to make stuff up, that’s not what this is about Bert is still moulting, so here he is on our roof from a while back singing his evening repertoire, as taken my my son Oliver

Who is missing our English Bluebells? A bluebell a week until they wake again next year #3

As the lights go out all over the world, be a shining beacon It is important everyone knows there is still good out there, and where to find them The darker it gets, the more you shine Do not lose your humanity

English Bluebells One the natural violet-blue, the other the rare albino Only about 1 in 10,000 is white due to a genetic condition that prevents the blue pigment from developing If you see many white bluebells together, they are the Spanish hybrid, where the white is common

All of the birds sit quietly on their rain branches Not their favourite branch which allows line of sight to feeder, bath & nest. Rather one that has cover from the rain Bert’s rain branch is in the open. He is sitting on it getting soaked as he can watch the cricket on TV

Trees are our guardians, our bastion against catastrophe Without trees we are defenceless against increased carbon It is incomprehensible that any mature tree is allowed to be killed It is like eliminating your own army 🌳🌲

Travel advice for citizens of the Kingdom of Kent when travelling through or over the lawless badlands of the East or South Saxons to mainland Europa Always hug a tree just prior to boarding a tram or bus, as from experience it is absolutely guaranteed to get you a seat

Trees are social beings that learn & remember, nurse their sick, warn each other of danger via a sophisticated fungal network that also keeps stumps of felled trees alive by feeding them. They also feel something analogous to pain, so when hugged, I like to think they know ☺️

Does anybody, sorry, everybody want an apple? 😳

Oak with no name, or a name only known to other oaks - Vockerode, Germany Photo: Frank Gyssling

Bert in his equivalent of a La-Z-Boy Safe high up surrounded by branches. He can see his nest, the breakfast bar, my study, and as per this photo, me walking down HIS garden.

This morning I left for a trip to York before Bert even woke up, so I missed his normal farewell song I will be 100 yards from a locomotive named after a duck, but with no time to visit 😕 It’s one of those things you either know or don’t know

Floodlit football. What will they think of next

130 days apart but both in their way just as beautiful

Common Whitebeam with no name, or a name only known to other Whitebeam, Saint-Laurent-de-Trèves, France Common Whitebeam (Sorbus aria) are named for the underside of the leaves being almost white transforming the appearance of the tree in strong winds Photo: Han van Meegeren

A good year for apples in the Kingdom of Kent, the Garden of England

Bert just walked the length of the garden and sang a few notes while looking directly at me from four feet away 🥲

This is an Acorn Vase It is a good way to study the root system of an oak seedling It also allows you to grow an oak from seed indoors during the winter using forced germination That is why we have a selection of acorns wrapped in moist tissue, in a zip bag, in the fridge

NEVER EVER ANNOY AN OAK TREE

Dancing Sessile Oak with no name, or a name only known to other dancing oaks - Caronia, Sicily Photo: Saro Sciuto

I just watched Bert fly from his temporary home in the fields behind our house & then land at the end of our 110 foot long lawn. Why do I mention the length?Because he then walked the entire way to my study, sang a few notes, & then flew away Why? Because he is Bert 🙂🐦‍⬛

Who is missing our English Bluebells? A bluebell a week until they wake again next year #2

It’s been raining on & off for days in our woodland I have a consequent immeasurable feeling of euphoria as: I see every rain drop being soaked up by the dry soil Hearing the different sounds as each drop is intercepted by soft & hard surfaces And the smell 1 of 2

To see a world in a grain of sand And a heaven in a wild flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour William Blake

As you walk through our deep dark Kentish woodland, a small fragment of light beckons you southward, and with the light increasing the trees part until you have a clear view. Of Sussex 🙄

Inochinushiyashiro no Mukunok - Chugoku, Japan Muku Tree (Aphananthe aspera)