A Tiny Lady Working Amongst Trees (and Tall People)

The wonders of technology never cease to amaze me. Working specifically with trees was a journey I began in late 2018, so what better way to share that journey than to start a blog about it? How I’ve missed writing too!

I was tired, drained and physically exhausted. I had been working and at the same time doing bird surveys, monitoring bumblebees, recording butterflies, surveying trees, reporting data… I was just trying to do too much. Then a chance conversation happened with a friend/mentor, when he remarked, “Why don’t you choose something to specialise in? Something you’re passionate about? You’re a person who likes detail and delving under the layers; we can all see that light in your eyes when you do that.” So after much thought and following my gut instinct, I chose to connect more deeply with TREES.

Studying and busy working in forestry, arboriculture, tree surveying as well as woodland management and consultancy, makes me very grateful for my choices. I’m thoroughly enjoying my tree journey (with a particular fondness for ancient and veteran trees)! It’s a great feeling being on terra firma looking up at a giant of a tree but being up in a tree’s canopy – climbing in sync with its grain and form – has also given me a completely different perspective of seeing the earth from a tree’s point of view.

I love the fact that trees are the oldest living organisms on this planet; they were here way before the dinosaurs, and still live on today. I feel this great connection with trees; when I’m among them they would whisper with their leaves rustling in the wind. When I put my hand on their bark I can feel their spirit pulsing through my veins. When they open up their leaves towards the sun I feel that same warmth tingling on my face. This intrinsic connection makes it even more real.

I realise: My place is here amongst the giants.

“She had so deep a kinship with the trees, so intuitive a sympathy with leaf and flower, that it seemed as if the blood in her veins was not slow-moving human blood, but volatile sap.”

– Mary Webb, ‘Gone to Earth’