Category Archives: An Occasional Series on Trees

The V&A : Three-in-One : Into the Woods

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The New Sackler Extension Courtyard and Cafe

On Friday last week I spent the afternoon at the Victoria and Albert Museum in South Kensington. I managed to fit in two small and one blockbuster exhibitions. I was meeting my friend Julie to see the Ocean Liners: Speed and Style major exhibition. (Julie and I have booked a cruise next year – more details later.) But I arrived a couple of hours ahead of time because I wanted to see the photographic exhibition : Into the Woods. I discovered on arrival that Folio Books are 70 years old and there was an engaging small display on an upper floor which extended into the National Art Library Reading Room.

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A Walk in the Woods at The Higgins, Bedford

 

Walk in the woods

At the end of last year I read a book review in Country Life Magazine of the book Silent Witnesses: trees in British art, 1760-1870; by Christina Payne. In a note at the end the reviewer mentioned an exhibition which was being hosted by The Higgins in Bedford. The exhibition finishes tomorrow [25 February 2018] but I was able to get to see it on Tuesday as Bedford is about a 50 minute drive down the A1 from Alwalton.

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At Eye-Level with Rügen’s Nature at Sunset

The evening of Wednesday 21st June 2017 found us in Rügen’s tree tops eating and drinking our way up, up up and along to view the midsummer sunset at the “Natur erbe Zentrum” [natural heritage centre of Rügen]. It was an evening to remember although sadly the sunset was overshadowed by cloud.

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The offices and start point for walking in the tree tops

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The Waldhalle and Ancient Beech Forests

It’s interesting that just as I was about to write this post I read an article in the Weekend Financial Times entitled “Golden Sylva“. Basically, it’s about an architect in Germany using his own woodland to build his own low-energy house. The woodland has been owned by his family for centuries … “Frey is not alone in Germany with his love of woods. The citizens of Europe’s leading industrial economy are deeply attached to their trees. About 2 million people in a population of 80 million possess at least a patch of woodland, often no larger than a copse but nonetheless a personal treasure … in German culture, the tree is uniquely significant. As Hans-Peter Friedrich, a former agriculture minister, says : “You find woods in every German story”.”

The article goes on to explain what Mr Frey is doing and how he is going about the construction etc. but later it reverts back to the tree-related roots of Germany’s founding myth and the importance of woods in German art, music and literature.

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The Llangernyw Yew : The Oldest Tree in Wales and a Forgotten Poet

… And one of the oldest living things in the world! I don’t know why we don’t all know about this phenomenon. From The Pulpit Yew we drove on to the village of Llangernyw in order to find this ancient yew – more than 4,000 years old.

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Saint Digain’s Church also features in Simon Jenkins’s best buildings in Wales book.

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The Pulpit Yew : Nantglyn, North Wales

Earlier this week I spent a few days in North Wales with two friends. We stayed in a lovely old Landmark Trust property, Dolbelydr, near Trefnant in Denbighshire.

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Here’s an extract from the Landmark Trust website  about Dolbelydr :

“Meadow of the Rays of the Sun

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