Lovely purple light this morning behind the Sentinel Tree

The 'Sentinel Tree' showed up well against a pale purple sky this morning. I'm enjoying the fact that the bare part of its trunk that was shielded from light until ten years ago when much of the hillside above us was 'cropped' of its plantation trees now seems to be putting out green shoots. It will be interesting to see how far it can clothe itself before the next crop catches up.

The dead wood in the foreground of the picture at the right is holly. Keep meaning to get a ladder up there and harvest it for firewood. Small bits fall off now and then.

Go, Sentinel!

Nearer the house, as the sun came further south, its light caught some of our neighbour's remaining cherry tree leaves.

I made it right up to the Sentinel Tree last November. It was tricky because there are so many fallen and felled trunks lying about and a thick growth of bracken, bramble and opportunistic young birch, not to mention a fast-flowing steep burn (stream) to cross. I was standing on one of the more or less horizontal trunks to take this pic that's looking down to the back of our house and the misty sea loch beyond.










The next two pics were taken last October when I was lower in the wood and wondering how tricky getting up to Sentinel would be! Anyway, I have touched it; actual hugging was difficult given my precarious footing!

undergrowth to fight through
to reach Sentinel

The pale green in the middle is our back garden,
as is the upright goat willow tree in the NW corner.