Inspirational Natural Trees in Cumbria

Yesterday, my friend David and I took a trip to Cumbria to visit some special places and look at trees. We were out well before dawn so as to give us time to visit a few places including somewhere that we had permission to collect some material.

The first venue was a place of outstanding natural beauty, with incredible limestone pavements. The trees on this site are certainly not collectable, as even if it were possible to gain permission, it would probably take nothing short of dynamite to extract them from the crevices which they have grown in for many decades.

Some viewers will probably recognise this unique terrain, but I would rather not disclose its exact location just in case some fool does decide to go and attempt to collect these trees.


A beautiful landscape

 

A pine growing in the limestone

Yew with lots of deadwood

A yew with beautiful natural jins



This Taxus appears as if it had tied itself in knots!

The triangular profile of what looks like a natural bonsai... In actual fact, its roots are at the end of a long trunk growing deep through a grike in the pavement.

Deadwood

We then moved on to another location which offers breath taking views across the lake district. There were heavily browsed "bonsaid" yews here - this time growing in limestone scree. Unfortunately the gnarly, twisted deadwood does not really occur here.



A heavily browsed Yew

 

This Taxus had a lovely, natural, windswept appearance

By lunchtime we had finished site-seeing and photo taking, and had just enough time to visit one of my regular sites to collect a couple of hawthorns. We did not go home with any world class material, but a day in beautiful countryside with good company is never wasted.

 



Photo by D. Fairbanks