Winter Time Walks and the Watchers in the Trees

Winter, when the trees stand bare of leaves, is a wonderful time to study their trunks and branches and the markings on their bark. My fellow blogger Jane Mortimer has been regularly visiting a grove near where she lives and noticing the changes throughout the seasons. She wrote: 

 "I just had to share a couple of photos (shown above and to the right). Today I went down to Percival Grove for a bit of exercise, and when I sat on a bench I found I was looking at the other side of the Triple Tree. As I stared at it, I thought I could make out an eye on each trunk. As I moved closer to the tree I could see the 'eyes' were very clear on two of the trunks, and at first I thought someone had painted them on. But no, they had formed naturally from where lower branches had been trimmed off. They've even got eyebrows! What do you think?" 

I do think they look like eyes. I must admit that when I'm going for walks in my local park I am very aware of what look faces, eyes and other features in the trees. Although I know they are pareidolia, or our minds translating shapes into familiar objects, I still think they give the trees character and make me think of them as friends as well as gentle watchers along the way.

However, I realised that I'd never studied the silver birch tree that stands in my own front garden to see if it had markings that looked like eyes. Prompted by Jane's email, I popped outside to have a look, and took the picture you can see to the left.

Jane also wrote: 

"I listened to a couple of trees and found they were responding to being blown about by gusts of wind. Apart from the obvious creaking of the branches, which sounds quite dramatic with an ear pressed to the tree, the sloshing of the sap was more intense while the wind was gusting, as if it were being hurriedly pulled down to the roots to keep it safe until spring." 

Yes, the trees are getting ready for winter. Rest well, beautiful trees, to wake safely in springtime.