BAD BREAKS

So we survived the hurricane with no more to show for it than an ankle deep carpet of beechnuts and acorns on the lawn.  We were maybe lucky, since we are within walking distance of both Sussex and Hampshire which were both badly hit.

And there were fatalities.  Despite all the warnings and all the preparations, sadly people died.  Not for want of precautions, but mostly just because of bad luck.  I can only repeat the old adage of how cruel fate is. 

But I was struck by all the photographs of damage in the newspapers.  Did you notice that every tree that fell had landed squarely on a motorcar?  Look.

 

 What can this mean?

One theory is that the laying of fibre optic cables has somehow weakened the roots of all the trees along the roadway thus making them susceptible to strong winds.  But why don't they fall sideways, rather than across the road then?  Another view is that there are just too many cars sitting along the roadside, so that trees cannot fall with hitting one of them.  But again, if they fell the other way, the cars at least would be safe.  I tend to believe that the trees are beginning to fight back.  Too long have they been subjected to carbon monoxide pollution.  Too often have they been struck and injured by wayward motorists.  Too great are the number of trees that have been felled to make way for new highways.

Well it can't just be coincidence, can it.

AXE AND IT WILL BE GIVEN TO YOU

I managed to delay my return to this country until the grip of winter had loosened.  Last week, while it hovered around freezing point in UK, I was sunbathing in perfect Mediterranean sun.  Not gloating or anything; just saying.  So it was nice to have warm sun and a fresh, cool wind blowing when I emerged from the aircraft at Gatwick, instead of the bone-numbing chill I remembered from a couple of weeks (plus half a year) earlier.

Never the less, it hasn't exactly become spring yet.  This is the copse next to my house


Apart from a bit of flourishing ivy and some splendid lichen, not a speck of green in sight.  It is in fact raining again at this minute, despite my hope that I might at last get out and do something about the lawn (recently renamed as the Slough of Despond and currently awaiting EU recognition as an important breeding ground for Ciconiiformes).  Still, the shrubbery looks green.


Actually, we have just had the tree surgeons in to look at the state of our trees and discover that four of them have died.  Who knows what caused their death?  Trench foot?  Death by drowning?  Rampant fungus?  Or maybe they just gave up in all the rain and snow and Arctic winds?
Counting our blessings though, we will have a nice pile of logs for next winter, which apparently will begin shortly.

FALL SHOOTS AND LEAVES

I promised some autumn pics of Haslemere. Unfortunately my computer has packed up again. We had a power surge the other evening just after I had loaded them up and deleted them from my camera. So they are lost to me for the moment. I have two fuses and a surge protector between the mains and the computer and one of the fuses duly blew, but still the computer wouldn't restart. I suspect it is also in the autumn of the computer's years. The annoying thing about the laptop though is the extreme sensitivity of the mouse. I have just downloaded an unwanted photograph as my desktop theme for example simply by touching the mouse area too firmly (apparently). I have now had to waste about 15 minutes changing it back.

Incidentally, it's not just the leaves that have benefited from the wet summer this year; there have been an extraordinary variety of fungi. Whilst battling with the infestations in my garden, I have enjoyed seeing the examples I come across in the woods and fields around here. Here are a couple from today.

 

Anyway, to give you a flavour of the colours this year, below are a collection of pics from this weekend from Ramster, a house and garden in Haslemere open to the public a couple of times a year, and the Winkworth arboretum in Godalming.

 

     

 

 

 

AUTUMN YEARS

I mention recently that the autumn colours were now visible here.  I will post some pics of Haslemere later and try to get to a couple of arboreta over the weekend to catch the leaves at their best.  This year, because of the (to put it kindly) peculiar weather, the colours are particularly striking.  We don't have the displays of scarlets and purples such as are famous in Virginia or Kyoto, but this year we have splendid golds and yellows and russets. 

Down the A3 though, on Bramshott Common, are a collection of maples that catch the eye every time you drive past.  They are a memorial to Canadian soldiers who died during the wars.  

Canadian troops trained here during both Wars and 418 of them, who died in the First World War, are buried in nearby Bramshott and Greyshott churchyards.  Many of those who died in the Second World War are buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery, north of Guildford. 

Road widening unfortunately meant that the original avenue had to be moved, but new trees were brought in from Canada and planted in 1995, the last one by the Canadian High Commissioner, the visiting Minister for Roads and Canadian veterans and British Legion representatives.  

This is what you see from the A3.

 

 

Soon after the car park, you realise there are Canadian maples just round the corner.

 

Bramshott Common is still used for training and manoeuvres, so I was only half surprised, as I walked along the footpath, when I encountered an armed patrol in full battledress coming towards me.  I stood back into the undergrowth, trying to look inconspicuous, and the walked past, glancing in all directions and waving their weapons from side to side.  The last man through, walking almost backwards, nodded to me and raised his hand as they disappeared into the forest.  They were almost silent in their progress and I never saw them again, so I had to pinch myself to make sure it had really happened.  

Anyway, here are some shots of the avenue.