Saturday 12 January 2008

My Yew.

We have a yew tree between the blue garden and the road outside.
Late last autumn we discovered alot of small red berries on it.

Yew, or "barlind" as it is called in Norway, was a new tree to me when we moved in here 6 years ago. Over the years I have come to love it; the green it gives us all year, the privacy it gives from life outside the garden, the way it gives shelter to birds and squirrels, the shade it gives when I sit at the Blue Table writing my reflections.

There is a Yew-tree, pride of Lorton Vale,
Which to this day stands single, in the midst
Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore;
Not loth to furnish weapons for the bands
Of Umfraville or Percy ere they marched
To Scotland's heaths; or those that crossed the sea
And drew their sounding bows at Azincour,
Perhaps at earlier Crecy, Poictiers.
Of vast circumference and gloom profound
This solitary tree! a living thing
Produced too slowly ever to decay;
Of form and aspect too magnificent
To be destroyed"
William Wordsworth
Inspired by the magnificent Yew at Lorton, Cumbria.
The girth of this tree was measured as 27 ft in 1806.
Today half the trunk remains (19 ft circumference).
More information about yew here.

6 comments:

Barbara said...

We also have some yew trees and shrubs but - unfortunately - only a few red berries. At the moment they all have gone...probably eaten by the birds. Yew hedges are quite popular here but not as much as in Great Britain of course.
Have a nice weekende, Britt-Arnhild!
Babara

Britt-Arnhild said...

Barbara - Seems like our birds like them alot also :-)

Anonymous said...

Lovely photos. I've never heard of a Yew tree. I'm glad to learn something new. ;-)

Paz

Britt-Arnhild said...

I Paz. I know the yew are popular in England. I thought you had them over in US as well.........You do have alot of other great trees though. I spent two weeks in NY one year, during late autumn. The colours were superb.

MariaJ said...

Yew tree isnt a natural tree here but many gardeners have it on their yards. Well, here it looks like a bush more than a tree. I think it grows so slowly here and of course there are many sorts of it. I tried it once too but it died. Maybe the area wasnt the best one and I try it again this year. Thanks for reminding me! Oh and its so lovely to see that gardeners all over the world have woke up...I also started to look seedcataloges...

Britt-Arnhild said...

MariaJ - Yew is not a natural tree here either. The ones we have, I think they are three growing together, more like huge shrubs, were planted by the previous owners of the house so I don't know how old they are. This winter is the first time we've seen berries on them.