A giant of a tree

(Click on photos to enlarge).

This wonderful tree was just to one side of the abbey ruins at Margam Park. It must be several hundred years old. I loved the elegant swooping of the branches so that they touched earth. In the green twilight beneath the tree's canopy, it was like being in fairyland. I grew up near the New Forest, and some of the Forest's magnificent oak trees date from the time when trees had their branches "trained" to form the ribs for our Navy's ships, back in the days of sail. Buckler's Hard was the naval dockyard at a time when some of Nelson's fleet were built. See: http://www.beaulieu.co.uk/bucklershard/

A closer look at the tree, soaring into the sky just as the abbey buildings once did. I thought it was a beech, I was certain in fact, but then looking at a close-up of the leaves, they are very serrated on the edges . . . Perhaps an American beech? There are special arboretum plantings in the grounds.

I will dedicate these photos to my friend Leanne, who loves trees, and to my husband and eldest daughter who also feel the same way. I would find it very hard to live anywhere that DIDN'T have trees.