I had to drive inland in the Borders today. Its always glorious to do so at this time of year as you get the full whack of the autumn colours which we miss at the coast. Here, as soon as the leaves loosen even a wee bit, they are ripped off the branches by the "sea breezes"! Anyway, I arrived at my appointment a wee bit early, so I decided to find myself a suitable place to park up and enjoy nature for 15 minutes or so. The only stopping place I could find nearby was a layby opposite a scrubby bit of hedge, that I wouldn't normally have looked twice at. But I am so glad I took time to stop and stare, because it contained several of these gorgeous twisty beech trees. I love beech trees and I love twisty trees, so a double whammy of fabulousness! After a bit of an oggle, I started to wonder what the big green mossy thing next door to the tree was, and then I realised - it was the stump of the original tree which had obviously been felled many years ago. The twisty tree I was so admiring would once have just been a wee sucker that the original tree put out after being felled. The original tree must have been pretty old when it was felled as the stump was around 4 foot in diameter. I'm guessing it was felled because it looked moribund and rotten bits kept falling off it, but as the twisty tree must be a couple of decades old, it just goes to show that the original tree was very far from dead! I'm afraid the photo doesn't do it justice, tricky light conditions!
