trees for company

I went to stay in a cottage near the hamlet of Iken in Suffolk, in search of solitude and quiet. No radio, no music, no computer, no phone.  What a relief.

In one direction a footpath snakes through the rushes to the Maltings, the concert hall built for Benjamin Britten. In the other, the path runs along the side of the river to a church on a promontory that looks like an island. It has a fifteenth century font with a devil and beautiful remains of a Saxon cross, and is said to have been founded St Botolph, a Saxon saint. I asked him for his help.

Away to the south and west lies the forest. Has anyone else been taken with the extraordinary quality of the winter sunlight this year? Even trees bare of leaves sometimes seem to burn with a pale fire.

Orford is 4 miles east of Iken, down worryingly narrow, twisty lanes. It's near perfect Norman keep used to make my boyish heart leap. There also used to be a rather frightening life-sized model of a merman, hung up in a cage near the roof, commemorating the merman who was caged there in the Middle Ages until he escaped back to the sea. Now it has been removed. Historical correctness, I suppose.

A few steps from the castle is my favourite restaurant in the world, the Butley Oysterage. It's been smartened up a bit, but it still looks like a Fifties cafe. My father had a yen for the smoked sprats. They have a very intense flavor - the fish equivalent to bacon.

Also very close is Staverton Thicks. It's not signposted, but you can find it on an OrdinanceSurvey Map, where it's just marked the 'Thicks'. According to local lore it's a Druid's wood. Ancient oaks, weirdly contorted like in an Arthur Rackham, are set our in a regular and evidently man-made pattern, and interspersed with old holly trees. Some people think that they were planted by monks in the Middle Ages. Why would they farm acorns, I wonder?

Shortly before he died the naturalist Roger Deakin wrote: 'I'm interested in the society of trees. A wood is a society of trees, and it stands for democracy and society'. I think he was on to something there.

Comments

[Lemon]

Interesting what you said about a society of trees here. It reminds me of how Tolkein and Lewis portrayed trees in their works.

[String]

I agree with Lemon...trees are my favorite beings to spend time with. Some Native American views hold that sitting with your back to a strong powerful tree rejuvenates - we traipse up Parliament Hill periodically to commune with them.

I have a group of evergreens in the back garden here that help me retain my roots to my more forested US relations (redwoods) - although these here are more sentient and protective. I recall once driving down from Lake Tahoe and viewing the pine trees marching down the mountains in what seemed to be troop formation...eerie.

I also agree with some lore about 'good and bad' trees - oaks are rather powerful. One of my most interesting astral projections was meeting a 'tree being'...quite strange. I envy you your solitude and the place, this country is full of magic.

Happy Christmas er...and Solstice! ;-)