This is a follow-up to my earlier post The Trees Don’t Give A Hoot, that featured a young horse chestnut tree.
What I meant by that title, if it is not obvious, is that the trees do not care that the world is being ravaged by COVID-19.
For the trees it is Spring, and time to blossom.
And on that theme, Tamara and I have been feeling more connection with nature on the walks we take, seeing more and appreciating more. Many, many people must be feeling this.
Tamara and I have felt truly blessed to be able to see these trees, to have some open countryside in the heart of town to visit. Cambridge has a number of deficiencies, mostly because it is flat (near the Fens), but it also has some absolutely lovely places to walk.
One of these places is just a couple of hundred yards from where we live, and this is where I took these shots (with my iPhone).
This Horse Chestnut tree is big by any standard but I hope you get an idea of how very, very big these trees can grow. Do you see the person exercising on the ground in front of the tree?
The second shot is of the candelabras. I don’t know whether that is the ‘proper’ name for the arrangement of flowers, but most people who know trees would know ‘candelabra’ for the flower arrangement.
And Why ‘Horse’ Chestnut?
Who knows whether this is the proper origin of the common name, but I learned that the name originates from the shape of the join where previous year’s leaf stalks sprouted. Can you see how it looks like a horse’s hoof shod with a horseshoe? Can you see the pin marks?
And finally, you might notice that the flowers on the candelabra behind the twig are pink. There is a pink tinge in the white candelabra, but the pink variety is something else.
By the looks of it, this pink variety has been grafted on to a different base – probably a white variety.
Here is the complete tree – in winter with snow on it. I posted this photo of the snow-laden tree in an article about this tree, on December 25, 2017.
What a long time ago that seems.
Photograph Works 