Twisted Branches

Towards a tangled aesthetic.

Beautiful isn’t it? It’s a Persian Plane tree in the fields surrounding Hergest Croft garden, a short walk from my house. The tree has a remarkable shape, like a flattened teepee, its branches fanning out and pointing down to the ground. Stoop low under those branches and you can walk into the space surrounding the trunk, which is also tent-like. I took this shot around a year ago, as the tree was losing the last of its leaves, on a day of thick mist. I think the photograph is one of the best I’ve taken. Mist is an opportunity to create with negative space. What you can’t see in the picture is all the other trees, hundreds of them, only a short distance away. You can just make out the outline of an ancient oak to the left, a tree in its time of decline, with a little cave in its trunk that you could shelter or sleep in. There are so many incredible trees here. Just beyond the field is a steep decline which leads to a wood so beautifully planted you can almost hear the faeries singing …