Old Mama Beech Tree

This ancient mighty tree stands athwart the path. Must be all of 300  years old. A Goliath of a tree, I thought,  a veritable Titan...  but no, she's surely female, like an old wise mother elephant her hide is  rough and pitted, full of cracks and crevices, warts an' all. She's the mother lode, the mother board,  the centre of the matrix.

The Mother Tree project is British Columbia springs from the ideas of Susan Simard in her new book Finding The Mother Tree (which I haven't read yet.)

Still on trees, who recognises the young seed pods in the second extra? Not many of them around in this neck of the woods, or much anywhere in Britain except a few fortunate areas. 

While on this topic, the latest news is that granddaughter number two  arrived early this morning and will be visited tomorrow.