Last Sunday, I led the Witch’s Tree walk. It was a chilly, dull day, unlike last year’s walk when it was sunny and 18 degrees. Nevertheless, 16 of us set off across the Flats to Bushwood. Once into the trees, we had the autumn colour all around. The pronounced yellow of lime trees, the crinkled yellow and brown of oak and chestnut. It’s tricky finding the Witch’s Tree, so I had pre-walked it a few days before to make sure I found it.
I insist it is Witch’s Tree and not Witches Tree. Homonyms maybe, but I go for the singular. My blarney is that the banished witch of Narnia lives in the tree. She has lost most of her magic but has found this tree, which sucks magic out of the ground during the day, enabling the Witch to ride the tree over the Flats at night. But never on nights with a full moon as she doesn’t wish to be seen by children of Eve. If she spots one on her nightly trips, she halts the tree. There have been dog walkers puzzled by a chestnut tree in the middle of a football pitch. Like a vampire, she must get back to the same spot in Bushwood before dawn. It is there that the tree draws its magic through its long roots to allow her her nightly jaunts.
Enough blarney.
October had 120 mm of rain, well above the October average of 57 mm. Now into November, we had 6 mm this morning. Plentiful rain, but there is still a deficit to fill. When our pond is full to the brim, I shall know we have caught up.
Yesterday, I was at the Stratford Library representing Forest Gate Festival, and the garden too had a table. This was the first day of voting for People Powered Places. The voting goes on till the end of the month. One of the first things we learned was that the pot had been cut from £200 thousand to £100 thousand. Quite unethical to do this, and especially at the last minute. Would one have gone through the chore of applying and attending meetings if we’d have known the pot was to be half the size?
Forty groups are in the running, but with the pot cut it is likely only about seven will get funding, and 33 won’t get a penny. The garden is popular, but popular enough? It all comes down to the vote. Simply the numbers, like an election, until the pot is drawn to its dregs. To vote, you go to Newham Co-create. You have ten votes. Make sure the garden is one of them. Here’s the link:
The garden has brought out a calendar. Called a perpetual calendar, as it doesn’t have days of the week, but just numbers, so that any we don’t sell this year, we can sell next year. It was put together by our administrator, Max. Each month has a photo, and a few fitting lines taken from these blogs for that month. It’s an attractive calendar, and will help swell our funds; we suggest £5 for it. There’s plenty of people in the photos you might recognise as well as wildlife though the year. Why not buy one, to help fill a stocking perhaps?
November is the main month for leaf fall. By the end of the month all the deciduous trees will have lost their leaves. But early in the month, most remain and with their autumn colour. This comes about when the tree squeezes off the connection to the leaves, so they get no water. The green chlorophyll cells die, revealing the colour underneath, yellow, maybe red, and soon after the leaf falls from the tree.
Not all trees and shrubs lose their leaves. Most conifers are evergreen, and privet retains its leaves which is why it is a popular hedge. Some time in its evolution, the tree has made a calculation. Well obviously it hasn’t, but it is almost impossible not to be anthropomorphic when discussing such cases, as if the tree has a brain and is weighing up its choices. All that in fact has happened is that it has gone for one, and that has worked out. Not one brain cell has been involved.
The Dare to Dream space has been tidied up, plants have been put on the cherry tree stump, there are jigsaws and the book-swap house is there. We are trying to get it more used, so if you want a quiet space, to read, to do a jigsaw, or just to relax away from the hurly burly, it is for you.
There are a few flowers around the garden, such as marigolds, alyssum and a rose or two, but it is also a time of berries. The cotoneaster near the small pergola has them in profusion, strings of red berries, winter jewels.