Oxleas

Had a very pleasant wander in Oxleas Wood this morning.  Unsurprisingly autumnal. Beech and Oak and Holly.

Kew

The answer to Where? on October 10th was Kew Gardens, of course.  The picture showed some of the ornamental work on the Temperate House:

It was a beautiful Indian Summer Sunday, and Kew was a great place to visit.

Of course, one of the best things you can do there is explore the trees... so we did.

A 'Small Leaved Gum' Eucalyptus:

A Narrow-Leaved Ash:

One of many 'heritage' trees, the Lucombe Oak:

Various Mediterranean pines:

Including this Stone Pine:

Various Olives:

Lots of different types of Holly:

Antarctic Beech:

Crataegus Monogyna - 'Pink Corkscrew':

The ancient, supported, heritage, Japanese Pagoda Tree:

Indeed Kew is so huge and wonderful this post could go on for a very long time - and I'd never really finish it.  The range is enormous:

However it seems best to end this post here:

The trees around Nunhead

It was John Major who infamously spoke about going 'Back to Basics' and the last person I would like to emulate is that Tory prime minister, the very rotter who oversaw the privatisation of the railways.

Nevertheless, for this post only, Basics is exactly where The trees around Nunhead is going back to.

Nunhead has lots of roads whose names derive from trees. But I don't think there are many lindens (limes) on Linden Grove, Limesford Road nor Limes Walk. I haven't spotted any. Hollydale Road may have some holly, however, and I'm sure somewhere on its long length Ivydale Road boasts some ivy.

This small specimen, which is none of the above, can be found on the corner of East Dulwich Road and Peckham Rye (W):-
Turning the other way, there is this huge horse chestnut: Some of you may recall my posting of 11th March (Just what it says on the Tin) where I wrote about a huge tree on Nunhead Green that 'after some heavy-handed topiary... dominates the Green today. Huge, menacing, with blunt fingers grasping at the sky'.
Well here is what it looks like now. The blunt fingers are covered with greenery and a lot of the sense of menace has gone. Perhaps the topiarist knew what she or he was doing after all:-

Just around the corner, this strange growth stands guard over Nunhead Library:
There are quite a lot of these strange spiky trees (bushes?) in the area. Maybe they were fashionable once?
This poor shot of the roundabout at the junction of Clayton and Consort Roads at first seems pointless in the current context.
But closer up, you can see a mature Aruacaria or Monkey Puzzle Tree.
Elsewhere in Nunhead, these trees stand outside Ivydale school (unsurprisingly, on Ivydale Road):-
And this is the entrance to Nunhead Cemetery from Limesford Road:

Finally a photograph of the unusual house that stands near the south-east end of Peckham Rye, opposite the old tram stop:
So. I've beaten the bounds of Nunhead (sort of), photographed some trees - some for the first time - and gone Back to Basics.
And I feel all the better for it.
After all, people might otherwise wonder about the title of the blog and what it was all about, and I wouldn't want that.
Oh, and I felt it would be appropriate.
This has been my hundredth posting.

The Trees around Nunhead on Tour: 14: Inchmahome

Sitting in the lake of Menteith is the tiny Island of Inchmahome (that statement is technically rather like River Ouse; as "Inch" means "Island", I gather).

We caught the boat over on a damp, occasionally rainy day. After a little while sheltering in the (almost but not quite wholly inadequate) gift shop and visitor centre, we went off on a little tour.
Little is the operative word, you can walk around the island in under twenty minutes.

The Island is overgrown with a tangle of trees. We circled around on the lake-side path, seeing what we could see.





At one point in our circumnavigation, we came across a felled oak tree - it had seemingly been blown over and mostly uprooted - but it was still alive! Sufficient of the roots were still hale and intact underground, it seemed, to keep the tree flourishing, and branches were now beginning to take a new direction. Growing through the wreckage of the roots were young birch and aspen trees - the former topping out much higher than the latter. And finally, the old crown of the oak had become encrusted and entwined with holly. It was a great confusion of different trees that these pictures, unfortunately, don't properly capture.



Also on the Island is this tiny manicured lawn and bench, which I felt was rather twee (and there are stories of fairies and bogles associated with Inchmahome, but I suspect more in and around the trees than here).
The island is also the home of the ruins of the Augustinian Inchmahome Priory.