A Tree

Even on the worst of days,

with staccato hale

and wild westerly winds

there is generally something worth setting foot on the fells for.

 

 

 

Heavy clouds squeeze deep colour from hills topped by a leaden sky.

Remnants of previous wealth litter the hillside.  Iron fences with detail more at home in rural Surrey?

A trig  made by squidging stones into plasticine.

Plants feast on rotting posts

Water reveals its strength gouging gullies through the landscape

which defeated mechanisation.

Then there was the tree.

Totally swathed in green.

Without it’s leaves.

Taken over by a creeping coat

Moss spread and crept over its limbs

absorbing water until the sponge could hold no more.

It dripped.

Air plants wrap round thinner tips,

green foils of fungi fold on top.

A testament to the clean Lakeland air

I walked over Lowfell and Fellbarrow via Darling Fell, from Loweswater.  The ‘tree’ can be found among rhododendron bushes on Moser Road.

The last time I witness anything thing like this was in the Himalayan foothills of Buhtan