Scots Pine with no name, or a name only known to other Scots Pine - El Arenal, Spain Trees detect gravity using tiny structures within the cells of their roots and shoots called statoliths. These tell them which way is up, & perfectly reflected here Photo: Alberto C F

Our father told us Giants live openly in the Kingdom of Kent

Scots Pine with no name, or a name only known to other Scots Pine - El Arenal, Spain Trees detect gravity using tiny structures within the cells of their roots and shoots called statoliths. These tell them which way is up, & perfectly reflected here Photo: Alberto C F

Our father told us Giants live openly in the Kingdom of Kent

Our father’s English Bluebell team photo from 2025 is finally on the wall Sadly we noticed Brian was missing 🤨 We will make sure he is in this year’s photo

If you live in Great Britain or are just visiting, type in the places you are going to, and find extraordinary trees to view Searchable by species, location & age ati.woodlandtrust.org.uk/tree-search/...

HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS, THE ENGLISH BLUEBELLS ARE AWAKE 🥳

It’s the colour 🤗

Five English Bluebells disturbed by one of our resident badgers From the left: 2 years old, three 1 year olds, & one that is weeks old & still a shiny black seed that only dropped to the woodland floor late last year Yes, all are now safely tucked in 🤗

If I step over this 1,500 year old ditch, the historic border between the Kingdom’s of Kent & the South Saxons, I will be in danger from hordes of wild rabbits from Sussex (as they like to call themselves now 🙄) They seem to sense the Men of Kent, & their eyes follow us 👀

Another damp day in the centre of Tonbridge My wife took this photo as she swam back home from work

Yew at Stoke Gabriel Church, Devon Believed to be 1,000 years old, & likely the original place of worship, & why the church was placed here 'Walk ye backward round about me 7 times round for all to see Stumble not and then for certain One true wish will come to thee'

Near Glastonbury in a land of religious importance in pre-Christian times, & near an Iron Age hill-fort, lives a 1,700 year old yew The tree, as a likely site of pagan worship & like many ancient yews, has a 14th century church deliberately built next to it Hallowed ground

St Mary's Church, Lamberhurst in the Kingdom of Kent has stood as a stone building since the 13th century, & records show there was a wooden church or chapel here in the year 998 However, the original place of worship still stands, the ancient yew in the churchyard 1/2

A sunset is heaven's canvas

Beauty is in the eye of the treeholder

Been tucking a few of these into bed

Male Blackbirds everywhere, but not in our garden They know each other’s territory, & get aggressive in the breeding season. In Winter there’s less, but a mutual respect for boundaries So they don’t enter Bert’s garden, thus leaving a physical & metaphorical hole in our lives

Snowdrops are not indigenous to Britain, & likely introduced around the 1500s, but now fully naturalised They likely began their life here in monastery herb gardens, perhaps used medicinally They have long been linked to celebrating light's victory over darkness

We have a lot of wild rabbits Most keep their distance, but know us humans from smell, voice, size & our passive reaction to their presence This is where are most familiar rabbit lives He likes to spy on us from behind a log pile, but we see him as he forgets he has ears 🤭

The common foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) chilling in our woodland Most survive winter dormant as a rosette of leaves in their first year, like this one The name likely originates from the flower's shape resembling a glove & folklore about foxes wearing them to move silently

Turkey Oak at New Shute House, England A quercus cerris about 250 years old, with one of the largest unsupported crowns of any tree in the UK. Photo: Jeroen Philippona

Forever young, sisters Mabel and Emma are host to an ever increasing cover of wildflowers They fell asleep days apart, comforted by their eternal bond, embraced by their closeness to nature’s finest

English Bluebells Sir, thousands of em

Welcome to my crib

In Gillingham, the Kingdom of Kent today, so will visit the childhood home of Major James McCudden VC A WW1 fighter ace that became one of the most decorated airmen in British military history He tragically died in an accident at the age of just 23 when returning to France

A 400 year old Sweet Chestnut (Castanea sativa) in Fredville Park, the Kingdom of Kent A standard 6’ 6’’ Oliver as a size guide

Listen carefully You can hear the laughter of the angels that live in the trees & streams The rustle of leaves & branches is not the wind, it is the trees singing with the winds help And the occasional harder gust is a fairies wing brushing your shoulder

The King Oak - Sevenoaks, the Kingdom of Kent The only one of the original ‘seven oaks’ to survive the hurricane of 1987. The other six have since been replaced, so no longer the town of ‘Oneoak’

It really pains me to say this, but Bert has gone He would be back from moulting way before now, so the fact he isn’t, means he will not be returning We won’t give up hope, but we are braced for the worst

The Dambji oak - Burtnieki, Latvia One of the largest oaks in Europe Photo: Zeltins

The River Medway flows through Tonbridge An upstream flood barrier protects the town, but the defences include the use of the playing fields in the centre by maximising the flow through the town without flooding houses It also looks pretty, as is my wife who took the photo

NEVER EVER ANNOY AN OAK TREE 🫣

Old English place-names in the Kingdom of Kent: cantwareburh orpedingetune rovescester æscet bromleag seouenaca maegdan stane sondwic remisgat How may can you guess?

Common lime (Tilia x europaea) or Linden in Europe In German folklore an important tree of Freyja, the goddess of truth and love In pre-Christian times it was believed that it was impossible to tell lies while standing beneath one

Greatness never dies, and it needs to be remembered

I really miss this place 🥲

Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. Shakespeare

I am sitting silent, in the complete dead of night in our woodland No light, wind, sound. Literally nothing that gives you away So when a Tawny Owl calls out to the completely empty world surrounding you, your senses are electric, your sense of belonging is total

It’s a little known fact, but HG Wells was indeed born in the children’s section in Primark, Bromley High Street, the Kingdom of Kent

Southern Norway had vast oak forests, but they were cleared to build ships, & many were sold to form the foundations of one of the greatest cities of Europe Amsterdam has 11 million wooden poles in place to stop the city sinking into the marshland it was built on

As our Bluebells wake it’s worth pointing out the rules 1 - Bluebells ring when fairies summon their kin. But if a human hears them your death will follow 2 - It is considered unwise to trample on bluebells, because you would anger the resting fairies & your death will follow

If you get up really early there is a good chance to catch a tree returning from a night out way after their daylight curfew starts 🤨🌳

Neuwieseiche - Wittershausen, Germany Photo: Rainer Lippert

Deep in a forest just outside of Tonbridge Wells is a Coastal Redwood aged about 165 years If you search the aerial photos from 1940 on Google Earth (thanks RAF 🫡) you can see the tree, except that it stands alone with no other tree near it I am intrigued 🤔🌲

As our woodland is secluded our badgers are regularly seen by us during daylight hours They almost completely ignore us, as by sense of smell & a vague visual understanding of our passive behaviour, we are not a threat I do wish they would stop digging up our bluebells 🤨

Anton & Edmund were part of a Luftwaffe bomber crew who were chased & caught by Royal Air Force Hurricane fighters over Kent & shot down at the height of the Battle of Britain in 1940 Both lie in immaculately tended graves close to my house, alongside British servicemen

Say hello to our little woodland friends

This is Bob 👋🙂 Bob is an English Bluebell, and his family have lived in our woodland for thousands of years We know it’s Bob, as we marked his home with a small stick, so when he awoke again last week, we could compare with his photo from last year Bob is handsome ☺️

St.Wolfgangseiche - Thalmassing, Germany A one thousand year old legend