Sunday 21 July 2013

Tree Trail


I decided my pictures were good enough to post, although I did just go through them going 'that's a tree, that's a tree, so's that...'. Basically what I'm saying is that it's a good idea to do this walk with someone who knows about trees. I have enthusiasm for trees and plants but nooooo idea what I'm looking at, so I went out with my stepmum this morning :-).

The tree trail was developed for the City of London Festival, a series of free events/things that is now mostly over, sadly. Still, it will be around next year and if you download the map for the tree trail you can do it whenever.

http://www.colf.org/whats-on/704-tree-trail

There are a few different trails to choose from on the map - Lesley and I went for the 2-mile walk, and for some reason we started near the end and worked backwards (it made sense at the time, I swear), and I've not posted photos of all of them as some of them really do just look like...trees.

I am not very good at this nature stuff.

ANYWAY, the first place we went was Cleary Gardens, which I recommend at any time because it is a lovely little oasis in the middle of a lot of very big buildings. It's off Queen Victoria Street, and I should probably do a whole separate entry for it. The tree here is a Swamp Cypress, apparently.

 


(the little house in this picture is an insect habitat)

There are Elms on Queen Victoria Street:



Gingko Bilobas on the footpath up to St Paul's Cathedral:


A tulip tree (apparently) outside the Old Bailey:


A fig tree at West Smithfield Rotunda Garden:



(you can just about see some figs in the second picture)

A huuuuuuge Sweet Gum outside St Paul's Cathedral:


And a London Plane just off Cheapside (also huuuuuge):


Saturday 20 July 2013

Blue trees in London!


Trees for Cities is a charity that's been going for 20 years, and as you might have guessed, they want people to notice, love and plant trees in cities worldwide. To that end, they've worked with artist Konstantin Dimopoulos painted some trees in the City of London blue. OF COURSE.  ;-)

http://www.treesforcities.org/about-us/20th-birthday/the-blue-trees-of-london/

The trees are in three locations (which means I've managed to find them all by accident, go me!), all helpfully close to each other - 

  • The gardens just by St Paul's Cathedral
  • Devonshire Square
  • Aldermanbury Square 
St Paul's





Devonshire Square





Aldermanbury Square



The more I look at these photos the more I think this is an awesome idea that should be carried on everywhere. 

They've also developed a tree trail around the city which Lesley and I walked this morning, but I haven't looked at the photos for that yet, so it may or may not get a separate entry. It's a nice walk and not too tough, either way.