30 Jul 2009 10:36 PM

Yesterday, after the 'weather men' had taken a battering, from the general public, due to them telling us that this summer looked like being a good one, they spoke about the 'jet stream.'  Some of you may remember that I mentioned the 'jet stream' in one of my earlier blogs. 

If we are to believe what we are, being told about the 'jet stream,' it is on the move and is slowly moving north.

I have run out of ideas as to why the weather is so poor here in England.

We keep getting mixed reviews of information as to why our summers are now so bad.  This summer, the third in a row, has started off-now that the schoolchildren are off school-as a 'wash out.' 

Already I have heard tales of people coming back from Cornwall early due to the heavy rainsqualls that have been so frequent, and I have seen, on TV, Campers, with their tents, in a foot of standing water.  It is awful to think that a few days holiday can be ruined because of the weather conditions being so unpredictable.

I have only been writing for a few minutes and, in that time, the weather has changed three times.  One minute it is cold, and in heavy rainfall, and a few minutes later it is hot enough to be wearing sun block.  The sun is not out long enough to dry the pavement.

People, in my age group, will know that our parents said very little to us, in the way of information, but the one thing I can remember my mum and dad telling me is that the seasons were much more clearly defined then than they are today. 

When the summer came, they said, it remained settled and could almost be 'counted on' as being hot all the way through.  Some of the people, in my parent's youth, used to sleep outside, under the stars, in the summer due to it being so hot at night.  Last night, with the rain beating down hard on the window, I was pleased to have the window tightly closed due to it being so cold.   

Do we blame global warming and if we do, what, I wonder, can we do about it to return to the weather conditions we once thought we could count on.

I have not had the chance to compare, with my records, how much, if any, of the breeding birds are affected by the weather but one thing is for sure, the once depleted number of House Sparrows are making a 'come back' for I counted about 20 of these small and greedy birds in our garden this morning. 

House Martins, summer visitors, seem to have bread well for there were 40 or more in the park and I think this may be slightly up on last year. 

Jokingly, the bad weather, in the summer, is all my fault for I purchased my first quality hosepipe and I have hardly had to use it over a four-year period.  Had I not purchased a hosepipe, 'sods law' says the weather would have been very hot and dry. 

The good news is that the poor weather has come at a time when I was too poorly to care if it was raining or if it was sunny.  Today, for the first time in over two weeks, I am pleased to tell you that I am now feeling a little bit better. 

By for now,

John, 

Add Comment   |   View Comments (3)

26 Jul 2009 8:56 PM

The beaufitul marked tree, with all the scars of time, as we know, cannot talk in the way we would need it to communicate but when you consider the time that has gone by, while the tree is on this planet, how wonderful it would be if we could extrapulate the history that has gone before it.

Having said that, there are clues, if we care to look for them, that let us get to know a little about what the tree may have seen while it has been growing to its full maturity.

First of all, this tree, when it can no longer stand in the soil, will probably be re born through some kind of fruit, or stem, that may fall to the ground and burry itself in the ground only to be able to start the process of new growth once again.  I suppose there is already a way of finding out how old the original gene, of the new growth, could be. 

Stop waffeling John and get on with it I here you say.

It is my guess, from looking at the photo, that the sapling, when it first raised it's head to the light, was actually two saplings interwoven and, when I think of the added strenth the two saplings would have, in their intertwined state, this could be a factor as to why the tree has stood the gales that must have, over a long period of time, tried to topple the heavy hulk.

There are nobules on the tree and it seems to me that some of them may have had large branches attached to them and, for one reason or another, they have  fallen to the ground.  The wood would have regenerated, which I imagine  helped the tree to receive the nutrients the broken branches, as they rotted back into the soil, carry one going.

What of the soil the nutrients may be in, well, there are several point to consider here.  Top soils may, as the tree has kept on growing and rooting down deeper to suck up water it needs to survive, come and gone to the ravages of erosion and time, but replaced by the leaf mold the tree produces.  I would imagine, as time had gone by, that other trees surrounded the one we can now see.  It was probably protected and sheltered by several trees that may now have gone. 

A question, perhaps 'over the top,' would have to be asked as to weather trees can live in tandem with one another so that they assist the process of life instead of being part of the dieing process; now there's a thought!

I have seen old trees, with their roots sticking out of eroded soil, that have no other tress around them, and I have seen the same kind of trees with others-of their kind-at arms lenth and often wondered how this could be. 

I have heard it said, once a tree is exposed, such as the holes you can see, then it will die.  Experience tells us, from trees that have been half burnt through, that they can carry on growing again even though some of the tree has no bark and no internal wood structure. 

There are more cluse though, in the vast time span that this tree may have been growing, there would have been stones in its path growth but because trees are usually slow growing, my guess is, as time passes, that stones are washed out of the way before they can grow inside or on the side of the tree's large structure.  The only trees I have seen, that have other growth inside them, is trees that have come across physical barriers and have to grow round the barrier if it is to survive.  An example would be of a tree growing round a mettle fence post or even an old house. 

I have no idea of the age of this tree but a little bit of history, for the tree was from the Strid, an earlier blog mentioned the Strid, and I know that all the mature trees, on the Strid, were planted by a monk.  All I have to do is go back to the Strid, next year, and find out when the trees were planted.

It is all there if we care to find out about it.

At the end of the day, a tree is just a tree to some people but, to me, trees are a thing of beauty-all year round-and without them my world would be a gloomier place.

I hope my blog, the next time you see an old tree, helps you see it in a different light.

P.S.

I am begining to feel a little better after catching the virus that seems to be sweeping the World.  At the moment, a little typing is about all I can muster.

By for now,

John.

Add Comment   |   View Comments (3)

21 Jul 2009 4:42 PM

To all you lovely people out there, who have given me lots of encouragement and tips on how to rid myself of the way I am feeling at the moment, thank you. 

If our local community, as it was when we were young, was as helpful as the overfifties Internet community, then, in my view, the World would be a better place.

Thank you all.

John.

Add Comment   |   View Comments (2)

21 Jul 2009 4:23 AM

Hi there to you all,

About two weeks ago, when my wife and I had returned from our holiday, we went to the nearest supermarket, as you do, to stock up for the coming week.  While we were at the cashout the young lady, who was seeing to our food bill,suddenly burst into a sneezing bout.  My wife caught the brunt of it and a few days later she was in bed with an awful cold.  I became house mother and paid more attention, than usual, to the hygene in the house.  I reckoned that if I could get a little bit of restbite, before I was to fall ill, that was going to be the best for all the household. 

In fact, my son and I did really well, although he is now away for a few days, but my efforts, where I tried not to get the cold, were to be proven wrong 

After a coulple of days in bed, aching all over and wanting to do  normal things again, I thought I would pass a few moments on the Net.

To my surprise, while consentrating on my typing, I have not felt as bad as I thought I would but, if the truth were known, my cold, now in my head rather than on my chest, keeps going and coming back.  One minute my head feels clear and the next I can hardly hold my head up.

Well, my friends, the moment when I can hardly hold my head up has come round again and I feel the need to go for a lie down.

By for now,

John.   

Add Comment   |   View Comments (5)

17 Jul 2009 10:49 PM

Earlier in the year, I wrote a blog about my yearly visit to the Blue Bell Wood not far from where I live.

I took this photo, at the time of my visit, but, as you all know, I have only just-with help from my wonderful blogging friend-found out how to put my photos on my blogs.  Please forgive me if I make one or two mistakes for I have much to learn yet about the photo set up.

Having said that, I really enjoy blogging to 'overfifties.'  Some of the other sites, I have blogged on, have been good for some things and very poor at others; they all have their own little set up systems.

I do not use the email system, on this blog site, but I do enjoy the wonderful comments from the mature people that contact me.  It is like having my friends coming round for a chat, much like it was when I was younger.

Enough of that, what about the photo?

I have forgotten what I wrote about this particular outing but one thing stood out, in my mind, and that was the fragrances coming off the masses of blue bell floweres.  The smell is a 'one off' for me. 

If I was to go round the same woodland again, now that there are no blue bells, the wood would be completly different for it keeps altering with the demands of the weather and the amount of light that filters through its canopy.

I have probably mentioned this before but, just in case, before the advent of electricity, the woodland areas were very important areas; without them, life would have been unbearable.

Woodland owners, due to village people not being able to read, in the early years, all had their own sighns erected outside the wood.  A bit like having something outside an old Inn.

The woodland sighns, for they had to stand the brunt of all year round bad weather, were less obvious to those who did not know what to look for.

The sign, if the woodland owner could afford it, may be a simple ditch around the wood or, if the area needed to be fenced, the sign may have been in the way  the gate had been built.  Every sign may have been different but the signs were a guid and warning to those who might contemplate entering and taking wood without paying for it. 

I can, as a boy, remember collecting fire wood but this was only to use to get a coal fire going. 

It was usual, in warm and dry weather, to roll up old newspaper, into 'spills', and bend them so that they would fit into the fire place.  The paper 'spills' were lit, any kind of wood, made into 'sticks' were placed on top and when there was sighns of life, coal was put on top of that.  If it was needed, a 'draw tin' was placed over the fireplace-to create an up draft-and when there was a roar, the tin was taken away in the hope that there were enough flames to make the coal burn into a good fire.

We did not have a 'draw tin' and an old shovel was placed infront of the fire place.  On the shovel, an old piece of newspaper was placed.  The trick was, when the roaring 'up draft' came, was to remove the paper before it caught fire.

Today, this would be seen as a very dangerous task for any adult to do but, at the times I am writing about, this was a task sometimes undertaken by an unsupervised child.  In those days, much of the knowledge we gained was 'hands on.'  It was either get the fire going, no matter who did it, or sit in the freezing cold.  How we came through unscathed I will never know.

That aside, once the fire was going, there was nothing nicer than to sit infront of an open fire watching the flames dance and move creating a firelight that had wiskful shadows on a darkening winter room.  (Not as good as central heating though.  It may have looked lovely but it took a room a long time to get warm.)

No matter, as is the case with my thoughts about the making of a coal fire, my thoughts, as I picked up a blue bell, when I was a child, to take home to my mum only to find that it was wilting before my journey was complete, is one that I will hopefully never forget.

Today, because of the blue bell being on the decline, children may never get the chance to pick them. 

I hope you enjoy seeing the photo.

By for now,

John. 

Add Comment   |   View Comments (6)