A forest

Welcome to October's Photo Challenge. Can you believe it's nearly two years since we embarked on this photographic journey together? This month I was looking for Trees. In terms of picking a theme that is restricted neither by an exclusively urban or exclusively rural geographical setting, it's meant that everyone can fill their boots. Step outside yer front door wherever you live and it won't be long until you encounter something barky & twiggy. Likewise (and I've had this confirmed by so many of you) everyone's photo roll/archive is full of trees: even if you weren't taking a photo of a tree, a tree often sits proudly in the background. And that's often where the magic is to be found in Photo Challenge. It's not just 'the thing' I'm looking for but the other elements of the photo next to, behind or in front of 'the thing'. Anyway, that's enough of me. Suffice it to say the response this month was treemendous. Or do I mean unbeleafable? 

Rol, steer us away from this childish tree pun nonsense. "Hi John, here are some trees! Not sure where this one is."

"However, I know this one is is near Bestow Castle in Cheshire. You can see the castle in the background."

"And this one is the biggest tree I've ever photographed. It's in the Lake District - my son is standing next to it, for scale." Wow, that is a big tree! Thank you so much, Rol.

David Cooper has been on his travels again: "Hi John, from my trip to Poland earlier this month. The first two were taken at the SochaczewNarrow Gauge Railway Museum, about 45 miles west of Warsaw."

"This one is from Warsaw itself, by the river." Nice one, Coops. As usual, you've taken us slightly off piste and for that I thank you.

Tim Widdowson next: "Hi John, these first two were from Estopona a couple of weeks ago. The tree on the beach was dead and spray painted in in a glittery purple hue. I think the random chair in the shade made it. And yes, I did have a little sit down to gaze at the kite surfing."

"A brace of winter trees - I love the skeletal form they take when free of their summer canopy."

"Reach for the sky - the summer variant."

"Lightning tree at Dunwich Marshes. This one too is dead & weather beaten but still providing a wonderfully sculptural feature in the reed beeds."

"Combining my love of street art with trees it's a strong gable end game from Glastonbury and Manchester - the tree being the star in both." The tree is indeed the star, Tim. And that really does come thru loud and clear in all this month's shots. Thank you for a great selection. STG!

Jo-Shreeve from Cornwall never lets me down. Here's her October collection. "Hi John, beautiful trees from one one of my walks - no witches allowed!"

"Love this lonely tree in Malaga."

"Santa's grotto at Bethruthan Hotel, the best Santa we've seen - he's the real one!

"This is St. Just in Roselind Church - when they light up the grounds it's stunning!" The more Cornish photos you send me the more I want to go down there and explore! Thank you, Jo. You're a superstar.

The first of a couple of newbies this month. I asked Nick Coupland if I could use this image he posted on twitter a little while ago. He acquiesced. Thank you so much, Nick.

'The Tokyo House. Autumn'.

Another artist Mik Godley: "Hello John, as promised, here is my tree and relevant text. Cheers, Mik... 

...2 Słowicza West side #1, Walbrzych, Poland, via Google Street View, 21 May 2018, vector drawing using the app Concepts on iPad Pro, one of two series of drawings. This view of the woodland screen looks directly towards the mausoleum through the trees as the roads snake around the perimeter of the Walbrzych Mausoleum site. Having previously looked at ideas of Ürwald (primeval forest, a kind of German cultural icon) I became increasingly interested in how the mausoleum is effectively ‘screened’ from view if seen via Google Street View, hidden by surrounding woodland that has grown substantially since the mausoleum was built by the Nazi run German War Graves Commission in 1938, old photographs showing that it used to be very visible from the town below..." 

"...The now Polish town in the previously German region of Lower Silesia doesn’t seem to know what to do with this unwanted alien heritage and would probably rather forget it, the growing trees and thick underbrush helping the activity of post-war “forgetting”, an attempt at erasure of memory. Indeed for some reason Google has deleted Street View imagery on several of the streets on the perimeter of the mausoleum site, a further act of hiding. This hiding, this censoring of the past in the context of today’s politics became what I sought to investigate, to record in its present state, and the associated moral quandary, the place in our history found in such "aestheticisations of evil", the propaganda of the Nazi mausoleum’s architecture and relationships to current propaganda practices. Is that the echo of the SS death cult that you hear through those trees?" Thank you, Mik. I know people are going to find this as powerful as I did.

Ex football pro and 70s hitmaker Ernie Goggins: "I have many photos of trees but have exercised self-restraint and am only submitting two that are both fairly local to me. The first is Grimston's Oak in Epping Forest. There is a fair chance that The Swede may have frolicked around it in his youth." 

"The second is the traffic light tree outside Billingsgate Market. Hopefully The (young) Swede didn't frolic around that one or he might have been hit by a big lorry full of fish. All the best, Ernie." A great pairing, Ernie. I'm  particularly taken with the traffic light tree. And as to where TS did or didn't spend his youth is a question we'll have to ask the great man when we see him at #BlogCon 25. 

Graham Lester George is a writer, film maker & artist. And a bloody good photographer. When I asked him and Mik, over a couple of beers, if they'd like to contribute to Photo Challenge they both fist pumped the air and said "YES!" (That's how I remember it, anyway.)

Graham's pix are punctuated, for the most part, with snappy two word descriptors:

'Gnarly cherry'

'Light and bark texture"

'Tangled tree"

'False acacia bark'

'Knobbly bark with squirrel'

 'Tree silhouette'

'Twisted cherry'

'Misty arb'. Many thanks, Graham. I really felt these pulling me in.

The Swede (TS to his muckers) next: "The counties of North Folk and South Folk, in their more recognisable guises of Norfolk and Suffolk, have co-existed as East Anglia for centuries. East Folk however, is a small town that pops, Brigadoon like, into existence for just a few days each summer at the FolkEast Festival, before disappearing into the ether once again. This year East Folk appeared for the tenth and last time in the grounds of Glemham Hall, before it moves to a new, as yet undisclosed, location for FolkEast 2025. Next August, in addition to finding my way around an unfamiliar layout of stages, stalls and food vendors, I'll also have to settle on a new place to pitch my tent. In my many years of camping at Glemham, I've always hunkered down in the furthest corner of the site between a pair of snags - huge, sculptural, ghostly, dead trees. When I arrived back at the tent for the final time this year, the midnight gloom punctured by a full moon, I held my phone aloft and fired off an optimistic shot into the dark from beneath the ancient branches." A classic case of hit and hope/spray and pray, TS. And it paid off! A podium finish this month, for sure.

Alyson's turn: "Hi John, here are a couple of trees from me. The first is in the grounds of my mum's retirement complex. I loved the colour and played about with special effects on it." 

"The second is a bit left field - it used to be a tree but now the trunk and branches have been carved into a woodland scene. Hope it's acceptable. Bye for now, A." They're both more than acceptable, Alyson. Love what you've done with your 'mum's tree'.

Pete Zab, another fellow Nottinghamian, next: "Hi John, four from Woodthorpe Park, Nottingham." Thanks, Pete. I walk thru Woodthorpe Park often and never cease to be amazed how different it looks every time.

                 

C, a.k.a Sun Dried Sparrows, switches hemispheres for her portfolio this month: "Hi John, really look forward to seeing everyone's tree snaps this month. C x. As much as I adore my local trees, I'm going all international jetsetter on you for this one! These were all snapped during my solo travels to Australia and New Zealand long ago. Lots will have changed but I do hope these trees are still there. This is in Queenstown, New Zealand, overlooking Lake Wakatipu." 

"Next, it was the unusual vines hanging from this tree in the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney which caught my eye." 

"Here's a gorgeously exotic fan palm in the Anzac Gardens, Port Douglas, Queensland."

"Finally, I hope you'll allow this one - spotted on the roof of a shopping arcade in St Kilda, Melbourne." Of course, C! It's perfect. They all are.

And, btw, in answer to the question you raised above, I took the liberty of seeing if Hairroom is still there. And, guess what? It is!

The current Mrs. Medd has gone all Parklife: "Woodthorpe Park during Lockdown 2020."

"And this from another LD walk in Vernon Park. Where we saw the rat." Ah, yes, the rat. That's why it's known affectionately by the locals as Vermin Park. A nice park, all the same; rats notwithstanding. Thank you, Jenny.

Walter, another newbie, and fellow blogger: "Hi John, like many others, my mobile phone is full of pictures of trees and buildings. One of my favourite trees is a weeping willow that I often pass when I go for a walk. For me, there is something majestic about this tree and it just looks good."

"The other trees I like to see are palm trees. Here, for example, is Coconut Hill in the south of Sri Lanka, a place where I have been spending the turn of the year for years."

Miss Turner next. Or should I say, Miss Turner & Alfie. Alfie, like his mother, has found his way into the Medds' Inner Circle. These are a few shots taken when they go walking together, including on an old railway line in Arnold, Nottingham.

Alfie caught a bus for the first time recently. They even gave him his own ticket. He's still Alfie, tho'. Definitely not Rover. A huge thank you to the pair of them x.

Khayem can mainly be found keeping it real in the mean streets of Chipping Norton. Tho' I see he's slipped anchor for this first one: "Hi John, proof that I do occasionally leave the Cotswolds! At the beach during a fab stay in Valencia last year."

"A lone tree in a sea of yellow, just outside Hillesley in Gloucestershire."

"A lone owl carved from a dead tree in Stratford Park, Stroud,"

"Ignoring the fact that there are six branches, not five, this tree in Tiddingron Oxfordshire reminds me of a hand reaching up."

"At the base of a v tall tree in Cheddar Gorge."

James was in Marakech last week: "Hi Dad, checked in with a proper Moroccan welcome of tea. A gorgeous hotel that's like an oasis from the city!

He then sent a further flurry of North African images: "You can dig thru these for trees if you like." I choose this one. Thank you, James."

Richard Gosling is a Nottingham psychogographer and local historian, not to mention good friend. This is his first Photo Challenge: "Hi John, this fine example of a conker tree (ok, horse chestnut if you insist) stands sentinel outside Clawson Lodge - a fine example of the work of Nottingham architect Watson Fothergill (though actually designed when he was known as Fothergill Watson; pay attention at the back!) These days Clawson Lodge is the Nottingham Ukrainian Cultural Centre." (I used to sing in this building, Richard.)

"Life and Death Situation - a striking tree surrounded by graves in St Mary's churchyard in the Lace Market area of Nottingham city centre."

"I hadn't expected to encounter a tree in Nottingham's Victoria Shopping Centre, but I reckoned without Rituals, a 'Home & Body Cosmetics' store. The fake cherry blossom tree seen here helps to promote Rituals' Sakura collection, which 'draws inspiration from the ancient Japanese tradition of Hanami' (enjoying the transient beauty of flowers - usually cherry blossom - according to Wikipedia.) The lengths stores will go to to sell us more crap we don't need." I hear you, Brother Richard. It's that time of year when sleigh bells in shopping malls the world over drown out all other known sounds. Thanks for your great pics.

George from Portugal next: "Boa tarde Joâo, attached are two tree photos, the first shows male farm cat Billy guarding his tree (the bark is his main scratching post)."

"The second shows Anita (our female goat) next to one of our cork trees that has just been harvested: the cork bark has been removed, and what you see now is the trunk that has this almost orange colour (you have a glimpse of the old uncut cork just above the orange trunk, top right). The '4' you can see is the year of harvest. The orange slowly fades to a dull brown as the cork matures and thickens.  George - in the Alentejo Litoral." Thank you so much, George. You and the cats and the goats all seem to be living your best lives! Please come back next month - I love your 'From Our Foreign Correspondent' feature.

Charity Chic bings us back to earth with a bump: 'Seasonal Christmas Trees in our back garden (CC lives in Glasgow). And no, it's not in black and white!" Cheers, CC. Taken last week, I'm guessing?!

Kate, just back from the Orient: "Hi John, a tree in the gardens ofIndependence Palace, Ho Chi Minh City, August 2024." 

Matthew has an interesting specimen from his neck of the woods on the edge of Loch Ryan: "This tree is on our local walk and all the trees are affected by the strong winds; however, this one seems to have rooted itself again." Fascinating stuff, Matthew. I remember walking under this last time we were up there. Thank you.

Just time to quickly rattle thru a few of mine. Nottingham's Theatre Royal is a stunning building. Last summer there were some beautiful shadows dancing on its walls.

You may know the building. Well here's the tree over the road.

Bakersfield California, 2022. I can remember eating in the diner overlooking this Travelodge motel.

Santa Barbara, CA. I was going thru another yellow period.

We know it as the pigeon cooker - this concave mirror sits proudly outside Nottingham Playhouse.

Lanzarote from five or six years ago.

The Peacock, Mansfield Road, Nottingham. One time haunt of Charlie Resnick.

And there you have it. What a bumper crop. And I never once mentioned the one hundred and forty year old old beech tree that sits outside my front door. Nor did I bore you rigid about taking a photograph of it every day for a year in Lockdown and then turning it into a film. Maybe another time. Thank you so much to everyone who took part. I can't thank you enough. Until next time... 

 ★ 

 Postscript 3.10.24

And then I received this beautiful message from Swiss Adam...

"Hi John, so many beautiful tree shots in your post I wasn't going to complicate things by adding to them - and I have quite a lot of tree photos that I could have sent you. But if you want to add one, please add this one - the oak sapling we planted for Isaac in Remembrance Wood at Sherwood Forest. This was how it looked in August this year, the leaves finally peaking above the protective cone. We planted it two years ago last weekend and, hopefully, it will be there for decades and more to come." I'm sure it will, Adam. It's going to be a beautiful tree, I just know it.