Northumberland County Council’s free tree giveaway is back for another year!
The Council is offering 10,000 tree saplings to residents, schools, community groups, town and parish councils as well as charities and businesses to help make Northumberland a greener and cleaner place to be.
wendy.pattison@northumberland.gov.uk – Tel. 07779 983072
And also on Facebook: Cllr Wendy Pattison
Not river dogs this time but river trees. One last look at the de-foliated silhouettes of a few trees along the River Breamish before the leaves start to grow back, now that we’re heading for Spring.
About three weeks ago, I talked a little about beech leaves still clinging to their branches during winter and how their copper-coloured leaves loom out from the dark backdrop of shady woodland. They make great photos:
I have three favourite words. The second of these (in the order that I was introduced to them) came from studying A-level Biology at VI Form College when I was a teenager. I’m sure it’ll be on everyone’s Favourite List. It’s abscission. Yes, that one again! I know…it’s so yesterday, isn’t it?
I’m joshing, of course.
I’ve enjoyed visiting and re-visiting the area around the Hedgeley Lakes in recent weeks. How things change, though! The valley floor looks so different now from the yellow Hedgeley of April 2020:
It’s inevitable that, in the countryside, the landscape changes from year to year. Rivers erode their banks, animals eat shrubs and the wind breaks branches and trees.
There is a row of trees near Ingram that I’ve been fond of photographing for several years now. When I took my first photo of them back in February 2012 there was snow on the ground:
It’s been a great year for vibrant coloured autumn leaves along the lanes where we live this year. It’s been a real joy to see the ochres, umbers, purples, yellow, golds, reds and russets. But…nothing lasts forever, and the leaves are almost gone now. But as the deciduous trees shed most of their leaves for the winter, the larches are still holding onto their needles as they turn a wonderful yellow-brown-gold. Again, what’s not to like?
Competition for sunlight among trees leads to a remarkably consistent pattern of tree sizes in woodlands. And all sorts of animals and plants that live in the shade of trees are also reliant on the sun breaking through the canopy at some times in order for them to survive.
