Apart from the several flowering trees that are brightening our landscape, here are four interesting trees I have taken note of over the past week. The first one is a very old tree showing the scars of its long life.
This sturdy old tree grows next to a country road I frequent. It is covered with lichen and has produced several tangled branches during its lifetime. Like many large trees, it seems to represent solidity and a determination to face all obstacles.
Then there is a rather pre-historic looking tree that grows on the hills around Grahamstown, the Oldenbergia grandi.
I have featured the flowers of the Burchellia bubalina before. This is a young bush – one of many blooming at this time of the year: along the road, next to rocky outcrops, and on the local hills.
Lastly, here is a windswept tree growing on the edge of the Rietberg that forms one of the hilly borders of our town.
Wow, amasing. Love how you enjoy nature
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Nature is something this pandemic cannot take away from us!
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An interesting range
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I am pleased you enjoy the variety, Derrick.
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❤ the form that the windswept one has taken
✨☀️🙏🕉️♾️☮️🙏☀️✨
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It gives you an idea of how windy it can be up on the ridge 🙂
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👍🌬
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I love the top one and the windswept tree that seems to have turned itself into an art form. 🙂
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I am always struck by how nature manages to overcome apparently insurmountable obstacles in order to continue growing. We have a lot to learn!
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How lovely these trees look in a natural environment.
But if they were in a yard of a $$$ subdivision, you might get a letting saying, “Those trees have got to go.” 😦
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How awful: trees are valuable additions to our sense of well-being!
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I agree. But some places want everything trimmed up just so. Trees standing at attention!! Not a hair out of place. Or rather not a leaf out of place.
Fortunately I don’t live in one of those $$ places.
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I love the windswept tree. Such trees seem to embody the passing of time.
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It is the persistence that I admire in such trees, a determination to grow against all odds.
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Exactly.
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Wow, that is one stiff wind to bend a tree like that. I love venerable old trees. While most of my area was deforested by the early 1900s, there are a few old specimens around to admire.
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How fortunate it is that some specimens ‘escaped’! Old trees seem to exude wisdom and stability.
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I like the solidness of the first tree and the gracefulness of the last, it reminds me of a bonsai.
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I imagine it must be a bonsai of sorts given that the tree must have battled the prevailing wind to reach this height. Unfortunately I am not sure what type it is or I could compare it with others growing in more sheltered places.
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Wow! That is one bent tree. I can’t recall ever seeing one like that. I, too, love venerable trees. There is an element of magic in them.
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Thank you, Laurie. I think so too.
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What would we do without trees? They are central to life on this planet. Objects of great beauty and reverence. I particularly loved seeing the first and fourth trees you’ve shown here! So very different from each other in form and structure and yet no less magnificent than the other. What tales they could tell were we able to understand their whisperings.
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I often wonder what old trees have seen and experienced – I like your description of their ‘whisperings’ too.
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I love old trees too. The windswept one made me smile – no sense in swimming against the tide.
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I love your comment about swimming against the tide!
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That windswept tree is a wonder! It looks like it’s been shaped by some pretty fierce winds. Is that normally a windy area?
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As this tree is on the edge of the range of hills, it catches the strong wind up there – hence its bent form which indicates the direction of the prevailing wind 🙂
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