thenotsomightyom

Thanks to Dan Martin and Ellis Maddison of BBC News Online for the Headline

The final piece of my trio today about “trees” , the pieces show what a varied role trees play in our lives. This particular tree , an oak was planted in 1967, in memory of the Great Sir Winston Churchill in the village of Cossington in Leicestershire.

Sad to say it is again a story of House Building and Development. One hundred and thirty houses are to be built by Bellway Houses in the village with the only access suitable to the development being blocked by the tree that was planted in 1967 ,which had to go because the planning permission granted in 2022 allowed it to be removed for the development to have suitable access from the main street. The villagers fought this decision and tried to save the tree to no avail.

This week the tree was removed , though the developer has offered it’s trunk to the villagers to carve a memorial from and have arranged for a sapling from one of the trees acorns to be grown and planted nearby ( I’d check the D.N.A if I were the villagers). Other acorns from the tree were saved and hopefully will be planted out too, in various locations in the future.( again might be worth checking the D.N.A) .

So I’m sorry that the tree has gone, there is no going back and it is very sad, so I can understand the tears.

Namaste and Thank You for reading.🙏

Thanks to Sascha Pare and LiveScience Online for the Headline.

Basically the Chinese have ecologically engineered a forest around a desert that was increasingly getting drier and windswept and increasing the area of desertfication in the direction of human habitation.

In 1978 the plan to grow trees around the margins of the Taklamakan and Gobi deserts in order to stop s desertification in it’s tracks and it seems to be working. The desert is being transformed into a carbon sink by planting (and looking after )more than 66 billion trees around it’s edges and the plan is to continue this process until 2050.There is some evidence it is working , however, there is concern that it has not stopped the famous sand storms in the area. Still it is I think it is a positive ecological story.

AI generated image of trees being grown at the edge of a dessert.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

Thanks to Maddy Bull and BBC Online News for the Headline.

A seed planted many years ago, between 1809 and 1815 by Mary Ann Brailsford which grew into a tree, the fruit of which was discovered by Henry Merryweather fifty years later.

The garden in which the tree stood was then owned by Mathew Bramley. It’s seedlings became the progenitor of the Bramely Apple, which we know and love today and is seen now on many supermarket shelves . Mary Ann Brailsford’s tree is therefore very significant and ideally it would be lovely for it’s location and health to be preserved.

The cottages and land that the tree is on is now owned by Nottingham Trent University and they have done a sterling job in keeping Mary’s tree alive as it has being diagnosed with incurable honey fungus, but the land does not suit the University’s future plans

If the land is sold the worry is that the tree and it’s location will be lost which in modern day land development is a distinct probability

Is it worth saving or should we accept that it would be a good idea to preserve it’s D.N.A in the Royal Horticultural Society’s massive store of plants and maybe grow a healthy tree to remember Mary, Henry and William’s contribution to apple posterity and have the tree located somewhere that people can visit it. Watch this space.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

AI generated image of tree( not the actual one)

Thanks to Matt Simpson , Reporter Oxfordshire News Online for the Headline

The tea room at Grey’s Court in the Chiltern Hills at Rotherfield Greys closed on Sunday afternoon(February 8th) suddenly and unexpectedly without the normal chalk on a white blackboard explaining what was happening and if the Cafe will reopen anytime soon.

Thanks to the probing for information by the intrepid Oxfordshire News the Management of the National Trust site have said the closure of the “Cow Shed Tea Room” was to make some “improvements and upgrades”to the very popular watering shed. The fact that it had to close early on Sunday I think means something broke suddenly and the spare parts have to come from the Czech Republic by Donkey Courier. Hence the delay. Though in true NT speak, everything is under control.

The very positive Management message from the National Trust is that they look forward to welcoming you back shortly , though they can’t confirm a date yet.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

Thanks to Gem O’Reilly and Amy Clarke and BBC News Online for the Headline.

Gorne Wood is listed as protected Metropolitan Open Land containing 500 year old trees and endangered species.

AA Homes who currently own the land and have no planning permission to build houses on it thus the value of the land is not the £3million that they are asking but probably closer to the £60 ,000 that the local people have offered to take it off their hands and regain the space for them to enjoy which they have been unable to do for the last 25 years as various owners have sealed it off and let it go to waste.( probably helping the endangered species thrive).

I hope common sense prevails, London needs it’s green spaces whether or not Big Government tries to classify them as grey spaces, giving unscrupulous developers the opportunity to sell off the land with the promise of Housebuilding Profits.

It’s London today and the rest of the Country tomorrow, unscrupulous developers are everywhere, we are just not looking at our existing housing stock, it’s just build, build build and once it’s gone it’s gone. The infrastructure, the pollution and the decimation of nature is a long lasting legacy .

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏