The great redwoods and sequoias of California are not merely trees; they stand to remind us of the beauty and resilience of nature. They have inspired countless artists, writers and nature lovers. They epitomise strength, survival and the grandeur of the natural world.
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We had already seen and loved the coastal redwoods in the Humboldt Redwoods State Park. But while those are the tallest trees to be found anywhere in the world, they are not the most massive overall. That honour belongs to their cousins, the giant sequoias (as measured by a combination of height and width).
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Our world is full of geometrical shapes, many of them created by ourselves. Doors and windows, roofs, walls and fences, containers, art of all kinds … You will find geometry wherever you look in the manmade environment. But what about nature?
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No, it isn’t possible to successfully photograph a redwood tree, nor to convey its impact; you have to experience it for yourself. Walking among these groves is unlike any other forest walk. More than by any other trees, we are dwarfed by them, and awed by a palpable sense of their great age. That age, that immense size, their sheer presence; only by being there can we feel those qualities.
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What we in the UK call autumn is known for the most part as fall in the US. On our recent California trip we made sure to comment on the ‘fall colours’! But why the difference?
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Kahlil Gabran’s likening of trees to poems 'that the earth writes upon the sky' is often quoted, I know. And yes, the branches of trees, their twigs and leaves, do seem a little like writing against the sky. But there is more to this poem.
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A bonus I didn’t expect when joining a local photography group was that one of the members would own a patch of woodland. A wood that at the moment is full not of picnicking bears but of bluebells and other early spring flowers.
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In his poem 'To Autumn' John Keats describes the autumn we all know and love, with lingering warm weather and bountiful harvests. But he also celebrates later autumn days, when winter seems just over the horizon. Both have their beauty.
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In the early nineteenth century the Reverend John Beresford, Baron Decies, decided to turn a swampy area of ground on his estate into an attractive landscape with a lake and woodlands. Many landowners were carrying out similar improvements but perhaps more unusually the Reverend was acting out of philanthropy.
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Despite its name, the New Forest isn’t a densely forested area. Yes, there are plenty of trees but also wide open spaces of heathland. The name is historic, dating back to the Domesday Book of 1086. Back then it was the Nova Foresta, declared a royal hunting forest by William the Conqueror.
