... flame red when torn

When we went to Bradford a fortnight ago, we returned to find one of our trees had fallen down in the gales. It had always been leaning at a perilous angle and himself had wanted to chop it down, but I had been stubborn and resistant as I hate chopping anything! Anyway, it fell on its own accord but rather mysteriously fell in the opposite direction to the lean, miraculously missing the polytunnel! Himself has been manly and chopped it all up, lots of good logs for next year's fires.

It was an alder. Alders are very remarkable trees. They happily grow with their feet in the water and thrive on our boggy land. They are also associated with many myths. Here are a few random facts (pay attention!):
When they are first cut down their flesh is white but it shortly turns to this amazing bright orange, they also seem to bleed like humans
They are associated with the fairies, and the doorways to fairyland can be sometimes spotted in their trunks
The first man, in Irish myth, was made from alder, the woman from rowan
It's bad luck to come across an alder when walking or to fell it (hope falling naturally doesn't count!)
Deirdre of the Sorrows and her lover Naoise hid in a wood of alders
In the ancient Celtic alphabet, each letter is represented by a tree - alder is F
Alder doesnt rot and the piles supporting Venice are made from alder
The Irish for alder is Fearnog
And Seamus Heaney wrote a poem about it:


PLANTING THE ALDER

For the bark, dulled argent, roundly wrapped
And pigeon-collared.

For the splitter-splatter, guttering
Rain-flirt leaves.

For the snub and clot of the first green cones,
Smelted emerald, chlorophyll.

For the scut and scat of cones in winter,
So rattle-skinned, so fossil-brittle.

For the alder wood, flame-red when torn
Branch from branch.

But mostly for the swinging locks
Of yellow catkins.

Plant it, plant it,
Streel-head in the rain.

We watched 'A Week with Marilyn' last night- unexpectedly excellent, based on the making of The Prince and the Showgirl, made at Pinewood studios. The actress playing Marilyn captured her vunerability and confusion very well and Kenneth Branagh plays Laurence Olivier with aplomb!!