Our Lovely Old Ash Tree

Our Lovely Old Ash Tree

 

It is with great sadness on my part, but possibly great joy on my neighbours’, that our lovely old ash tree is being taken down. 

She was here long before any houses were even thought. 

She has watched countless cows and sheep munch away at the grasses below. 

She has seen birds and squirrels playing in her branches. 

Felt the strength of the autumn winds and the weight of winter snows. 

She has enjoyed the spring energy and summer glows. 

Our majestic ash has been ailing for a few years now and each spring has burst forth with new growth. 

Too frequently have the little twigs fallen and branches broken off.

Too many leaves blowing away before the first frosts; and too many landing on our neighbours’ gardens.

Too often have we had the doctor out to trim a bit here and trim a bit there.

Not so much letting go, but giving over to the inevitable.

 

Fungus is now her bed fellow. 

He has settled in her roots.

He has worked his way up into her heart; and broken it.

His fruit bursts out each September; beautiful and deadly.

This last year he has produced offspring of his own, which came out in glorious mounds of mushrooms.  (Edible I believe, but I did not try).

He came from underground, after spending a lifetime with another ash and will no doubt have moved on already to some other unsuspecting young sapling. 

And so the cycle goes...

 

An owl visits in the spring and autumn on its journey somewhere.

It sits and hoots in the small hours, possibly hoping to meet a mate. 

I don’t know where it will perch in the future, but I am sure it will just simple move on to another tree nearby. 

I will miss it more than it will miss me.

 

We have our memories; of the joys she has brought.

New leaves after the long winter months.

Plenty of mulch to feed the garden.

Several families of squirrels scampering around her branches.

The sound of the leaves rustling in the breeze and the rain cascading down the trunk.

 

A myriad of photographs will mark her existence.

A montage to show her full glory.

She is in all our garden party pictures.

She was present at weddings, special birthday parties and gatherings of family friends and neighbours.

She saw it all.

She will be missed, though the light we will gain will be a lasting reminder of her greatness.

 

The men will come to take her and I will not be there.

I cannot.

Good bye old friend you have been great comfort...

Dorothy Lauder 2013

 



Salford Quays - Pier 8 - April 2013

While on a week-long Art Therapy course at The Lowry Centre in April 2013, I paid to park in someone’s drive and took the fifteen minute walk alongside the rush hour traffic.  Part of my journey was along the water’s edge of Pier 8, Salford Quays.  After the noise and bustle of the motorway and city centre roads, it was such bliss to enter the quays.  I never thought it could be so peaceful in a city centre before.  The residents of the private apartments must enjoy relative calm, and the convenience of being close to their work.  The weather was still and clear and I just drifted along.  I was enjoying myself so much and looking forward to the art therapy classes. 

The water was still and the reflections so bright, that I reached for my iPhone.  I have always carried a camera in my handbag; ready to capture an unexpected shot.  I have only ever had snap happy types of cameras, which have served me well over the years.  Since the advent of the phone camera and in particular the smart phones, I have been able to take much better quality photographs.  I fired away and took a selection of photographs; of which I chose some for this exhibition.

 

The next day and the weather had changed.  It had been raining, the wind had picked up and all the distance reflections had disappeared.  However, while I was passing under a bridge I noticed the water dropping of the bridge into the quay, making those lovely concentric circles we all love to watch.  Again out came my iPhone and away I went snap happy.  Many of the images in this exhibition are parts of the photographs I took, cropped and expanded and tweaked using the basic tools; nothing fancy.

I hope you enjoy my exhibition and tell you friends all about it.  Please let me know if you would like to purchase any of the works.  I can have them printed onto canvas in a variety of sizes, or printed, mounted and framed.  I now have some canvas' and framed prints at my studio at Victoria Mill, Congleton, so come along to view at your leisure. 

I will be exhibiting at Macclesfield Library in April 2014, so watch out for that.