Category Archives: May 2010

Tree 15 :: who he? ::

Posted on May 31, 2010 | 1 Comment

31st May, 2010
Location: Gordon Ave, Southampton
Tree: uncertain.

I suppose I’d better introduce myself. Who am I, where do I come from, what variety am I etc. Born in Southampton, ‘roots’ in norway and Irish, Danish, English, Norwegian blood. – and all the other mixes of nations down the centuries. One big family, right. I’m African, right? But to deliver a more recent genealogy – this is where I was born – Southampton, and the tree I’m sat in is growing in my mother’s garden. It occurred to me I planted it – 15 years ago, quite satisfying in a way, and funny I should be sitting in a tree I planted after yesterday’s conversation with Hugh…So. I’m on a homestead retreat. They – my parents – ended up here for university. They’re both heart specialists. One of medicine, the other a psychotherapist. This part of the world, and also norway, where my dad lives has been the soil I gre in. I owe a lot of trees to the planet for all the CO2 I’ve deposited over the years with flights to norway. Perhaps that’s why I’ve started this – for a guilty conscience. I’m not sure I mentioned it yet – part of the project involves planting trees as well. Trees as a contribution to the solution, and tress I will one day climb. Trees as a statement of intention, politics, hopes, dreams etc. Trees as sustainers. Did I mention my nightmare / vision – the trees begin to die – world-wide, and we watch helplessly as our fate is sealed. The last days. Bleak. Bees – now that’s a really scary reality. Einstein predicted we’d have two years if all the bees dies.

So I am the product of 1976. Ever since I can remember I was aware of environmental stuff. Political stuff. My lefty mother and out-doorsy dad gave me a sense of it all, with a relatively militant and questioning bent. It’s amazing though – something that impressed me and I remember clearly was a group of three girls – the ‘nice’ girls, setting up a stall for the World Wildlife Fund at a school fete. They did it off their own back, and it was an unusual thing to do at the time. We shouldn’t underestimate the power of young people’s influence on each other. I am grateful to them, if I think about it. Grateful they tried to make a difference and influenced me in the process. I set a helium balloon off a few years ago with a note attached inviting the finder to send me money for the WWF (probably as a result of Rebecca, Lydia and Nicola.) Someone found my note attached to the shriveled balloon on a walk and sent me £5. I finally passed the money on to the WWF 20 years later – with some interest. Thank you balloon finder, whoever you are, for investing in my hope as a kid. I also, conversely, nearly started a forest fire – while we’re on a nostalgia run. I’ve no idea what got into our heads, but we thought we’d light a fire between the roots of a pine tree in the forest behind my dad’s house. We thought we’d put it out – thirty minutes later there was a commotion and smoke. It was put out quickly, but can you imagine? I was lucky. The thought of having a burned down forest on my conscience. Just think – there are people walking around – knowing they started a fire – one of those that spreads hundreds of miles. One match stick. One spark. Makes me think of revolution. Coming back to drawing analogies from stuff. Ideas as sparks. Fires of ideas spreading. I suppose there’s two kinds of change – the slow and steady advance of a tress etc…year on year…plodding ever on…stoically, and then the fires of change – overnight, almost. I think you need both. Change, if it’s positive, needs the steady, solid, deep-rooted and long lived foundations achieved with time, but the passion of fire to move quickly – both of which  we need now, considering our environment. Speed and wisdom. So I digress…

The tree.
Today’s tree is roughly where a Eucalyptus tree we planted and years later climbed and soon after cut down because it was pushing the garden wall down. We should have let it push the wall down and had a bigger garden together with the neighbours. Talk about garden set up in Hotwells – inspiring / This makes me think of when I was inspired by a communal garden set up…i think I may have said enough today though…but the gardens made so much sense, and made me wonder why we built walls between out selves in the first place. Who’s idea was that? Imagine if you removed all walls between all gardens. How much space you’d all have. And safe. Specially if you live in a place with a small garden – have a look. Imagine the walls are all gone from all 3 sides. Most people, if they did this, could have decent sized trees, play areas, tennis courts – all right in their garden. We, in the UK, put up with being crammed into little rectangles and think we’ve got it made. I might try and climb a tree in that garden, so I can show you what I mean.

Goodnight.

(the following are shots of the same tree taken in the autumn.

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Tree 14 :: The Hughcleous ::

Posted on May 30, 2010 | 3 Comments

30th May, 2010
Location: Churchill, Somerset – to be confirmed.
Tree: Poplar

My sister phoned from Norway while up this tree about to interview Hugh Thomas. Reminds me of a story I read in a Norwegian paper about a bus conductor who was running in the forest. He leaped onto what he thought was a stone and it turned out to be an Elk, who chased him through the woods. He managed to scramble up a tree to safety where he called for help. While waiting there he got a call from a local asking for bus times. It was a  small village and his mobile was listed.

So here’s the conversation with Hugh Thomas in the tree… the first of many conversations… in trees…

HD: Oh (ha, what? God? I don’t know Henrik, I think the trees are getting to you…) here we are up a tree, it’s Hugh Thomas, hello!

HT: Hello!

HD&HT: [laugh]

HT: I’m up a tree. Can you hear me?

HD: Speak again.

HT: Can you hear me?

HD: Yep.

HT: Yep that works

HD: Yeah

HT: Alright, well I’m up a tree…it’s quite a poplar, pastime.

HD: [laugh]

HT: badum tish tish dong. Any questions?

HD: Err…well, what’s the first thing that comes to mind…about trees?

HT: Well, first thing that comes to mind is like, the last thing that come to mind innit? You’re just up a tree. The last thing you do is think. So you’re not really thinking about it, you’re just looking at it. You’re living with the tree, aren’t you? You’re not reeeally…conscious of that…first thing that comes to mind. You might be thinking, ‘Well, it’s a bit green! Slimy, a bit crusty.’ Or you might be thinking ‘God, it’s swaying around in this wind.’

HD: [laugh]

HT: [laugh] Err, or you might be thinking ‘’Ow do I get down!’ All those things are first things that come to mind. You can’t remember which is the first one. (If) You’re asking for something a bit more profound about the tree it’s, that’s different…you know…you’re asking for something a bit more profound about the tree?

HD&HT: [laugh]

HD: Not necessarily

HT: [overlap] Right, just the first thing

HT: First thing is that…

HD: [overlap] Well when was the last time you climbed a tree?

HT: Mmmm!  Good question! Probably last year…don’t think I’ve climbed one this year. I’m always messing about, so yeah, not a typical…non tree climber. Yeah…not…yeah, I wouldn’t say I went out and climbed trees, but…you end up climbing ‘em…

HD: You just end up climbing them?

HT: You do.

HD: You suddenly come t, come round and you’re up a tree

HT: Yep. Yeah. But they are er, splendid, aren’t they? No doubt about it. Come out the ground. Go into the sky.

HD: Have you ever planted a tree?

HT: Yeah many a tree.

HD: And have you seen them…seen the progress?

HT: Yeah? What from sapling?

HD: Yeah.

HT: Yeah. My mother has a forest.

HD: Oh right, your mother has a forest?

HT: Well she did have. Planted it. Got it protected status, so that anybody who bought the house couldn’t…err…destroy it…

HD: Wow

HT:…In theory, I’m sure that that, people get round that.

HD: She planted it?

HT: She planted it an’ m’dad planted it. I helped a bit.

HD: Wow. A whole forest?

HT: Yeah a little, little patch of woodland

HD: Wow

HT: Wouldn’t say it was a forest

HD: Right

HT: It’s called a forest, but that’s to us.

HD: Right.

HT: But then I call my allotment a farm.

HD: [laugh]

HT: You’ve got to scale everything back a bit

HD: [laugh]

HT: It’s about 2 acres, of forest. Oak.

HD: Wow

HT: Oak an’…hazel and…beech…the idea was they’d coppice it and err, use it to err…heat the house.

HD: Oh ok

HT: But they didn’t reckon on getting old, an’ movin’

HD: Right so is it still…

HT: [overlap]…An Dad dying…

HD: [overlap] Is it still, it’s not in the family any more?

HT: No it’s sold. Sold the house, sold the er, land, sold the er, the whole…shebang, but, in theory the people who move in can’t destroy the trees

HD: Right

HT: So

HD: [overlap] How do you get that status?

HT: Forestry Commission I think.

HD: But how do you, what’s the criteria?

HT: Err, you get it registered as a, patch of woodland, I suppose, so that it’s protected.

HD: Right. But who decides? I mean how, what’s decreed (? 3:38), you know

HT: Err, you’d have to ask my mother, err, wha, wha, what happened there…erm, they got a grant from the Forestry Commission to plant it, and I think that kind of protected it?

HD: Ok

HT: [overlap] Basically, you know, some of the money for the trees was…somebody else’s money, which I think made it an official…project…

HD: Ok

HT: [overlap] I’m not sure…

HD: So have you…uh, what kind of oak trees, how big are those trees now? Planted from sapling were they?

HT: Yeeah, whips, they’re called I think…

HD: So how big are those…

HT: [overlap]…Just one thing(?)…(4:16)

HD:…How big are those trees? Now?

HT: Errr

HD: Climbable?

HT: They’re climbable, yeah, erm…

HD: Where is it?

HT: Well she planted many a tree, even when I was a kid they were planting tree, when I was a tiny kid, they were planting trees…

HD: Wow

HT: They were er, there was a tree like this, ’n it must be bigger than this now, cos it was like this when I left Yorkshire…

HD: Right.

HT: Err…but they planted loads of tre, it was just an open field so all of the trees, in that thing are now, an’ some of them are as tall as this…not as, girth wise…

HD: Yeah

HT: Because they were kind of specimen trees? You know like they’d go up and they wouldn’t mutate like that one. They were sort of naturally…you know they’d, grown in a garden.

HD: Right

HT: Err apple trees, the garden’s full of apple trees there…

HD: Right. So could, could umm, could we conceivably go there? And climb a tree that you planted?

HT: Yep. That is possible.

HD: [overlap] You could, could you pick out, you know which trees you planted?

HT: Err, yeah within reason, there was a band of conifers as well that were planted. And that sort of marks things within the wood, it’s quite difficult. See the thing is somebody lives there now

HD: Yeah. Well we could, we could call them up ’n, ’n say that…your arty mate is doing a project ’n can we climb a tree…

HT: [overlap] climb a tree

HD:..that I planted

HT: Yeah we could try there, in theory…

HD: In theory…

HT: In theory. But there are other trees.

HD: How old are these trees? Now?

HT: Err…

HD: The oldest ones?

HT: I reckoned they’d be…about…30 years old?

HD: Right

HT: Maybe the oldest, no 29, 28…years old, I would think? You’ll have to ask mother.

HD: Are you up, you up, are you into it?

HT: What have I got to say yes now and then it’s on bloody, recorded?

HD: [overlap] No, well, no. Are you in, are you into doing that?

HT: Yeah go on, yeah, let’s do it Henrik! Yeah! Yeah! High five arrrrrggggghhhh…

HD: [laugh]

HT:…bumph. Bumph bumph bumph bumph. Thud. Yeah. Is that it?

HD: [laugh] That’s a good, it’s a pretty good start.

HT: Mmmm. But there’s trees in my garden I planted.

HD: Right

HT: That yellow leafed tree.

HD: [overlap] Could you plant, could you climb that?

HT: You could, climb it…it’s pretty, it’s a…

HD: A bit spindly.

HT: It’s a bit…spindly in places and also it’s a…acacia…tree I think, or something like that, and it’s got spikes on it lower down? It gets very spiky, it’s got like a big thorns

HD: Right

HT: Think giraffes eat them

HD: Girarfs

HT: Giraffes eat them, one of the thorns, to stop other things going up there

HD: Right…[quietly] riiigh…

HT: But there higher up it’s got no spikes, cos they don’t need ’em higher up, so that…

HD: [overlap] Wha, what gave your mum the idea, or, your parents the idea to plant this…forest?

HT: They liked gardening.

HD: So it’s a gardening…

HT: [overlap] And the land down there was near, near the A22, and err…they wanted a… a woodland there, to deaden the noise of the traffic?

HD: [laugh] Right

HT: So there’s quite a lot of noise, an’ traffic. Err, it was also quite…difficult to landscape that land, you know, to…mow the lawns, or whatever, so plant the forest then, there’s nothing growing down below, really under a…canopy…

HD: Right.

HT: You j, you just have grassy paths. And a, nice walk.

HD: Right.

HT: So they could wander round their own garden. Didn’t quite pan out as they’d thought…

HD: Right. Did they plan, did they plant from seed at all? Or did they buy, like, little…

HT: We bought them from err a nursery, they come with err…you know, just in a big pile, ’n, we put a, plastic thing round ‘em?

HD: Right.

HT: Stop the, bugs getting on them or something.

HD: Right.

HT: Protects them. And then they grow out of that, to be like a little greenhouse for them? Sometimes they came with a little square thing on, made out of biodegradable…plastic…

HD: Right.

HT:…Sort of kept them warm…Yeah and they had to water them, you know…

HD: Right, well it has got stuff, a lot of work…

HT: Yeah there was a lot of work in it, yeah

HD: How many trees? Roughly.

HT: Err

HD: We talking hundreds, of trees?

HT: Err would think so, yeah. Well…suppose, they put the…they were spaced every…sort of err…I think there were, there was a, a variety of them that were ones that you would be coppicing as you went. Soo err, I think they were spaced every 10 / 15 foot?

HD: Right.

HT: [overlap] So you’ve got quite a large area. You could work it out. I reckon…maybe 100?

HD: Right.

HT: Maybe 200? Yeah, I mean they just kept on buying ‘em.

HD: Right.

HT: An’ you know, even trees that weren’t in the same, we were always planting these things.

HD: So…total change of subject…

HT: How do we get down?

HD: You’ve always got lots of…

HD&HT: [laugh]

HD:You’ve always got lots of things to say about a lot of things, so, come on, you must have another…

HT: Another thought while up a tree?

HD: [overlap] Or, or, ummm, or story, or, something about…

HT: Well I think a tree is a healing thing. That’s for sure. Your head feels cured. You know. People with hay fever should climb trees. And err, take it on man.

HD&HT: [laugh]

HT: That’ll do! I think err, people don’t get very close to the…there’s no reason for us to climb a tree, is there? I mean I climb my apple tree every year to pick the apples, but apart from that…there’s no…real…reason to climb it, but… it’s worth doing. I’d recommend it!

HD&HT: [laugh]

HT: Yeah, no…

HD: Healing things, when you say healing what do you mean? I mean, apart from, the obvious err environmental and err life sustaining benefits?

HT: Well I would presume the atmosphere inside this tree is different. (?) 10.41

HD: What just just, outside…

HT: That’s why we like the look of it. It’s kind of like a canopy of green. You know so, you’re rolling around in green aren’t you? So it, there must be something from that.

HD: Mmm

HT: That’s gotta be different this is where the oxygen’s coming out. You probably get high on the oxygen? But maybe it’s…something else?

HD: Mhmm

HT: Err. I mean the other thing about a tree…is, like teaching kids to draw trees is hilarious?

HD: [laugh]

HT: You know. Cos they can draw the tree as they know it, or they can draw the tree as they see it…and if they’re into it, they start to draw the space that, that, the tree fills? So it’s quite a dynamic thing to…sketch and draw…

HD: Mmm

HT: Paint. To paint it. And iif you just teach the kids the tricks of…making a tree…an’ they, an’ they like the look of it, that’s interesting. And that’s just…tricks, with the brush. You know, a tree looks like this…has this…configuration…

HD: Right.

HT: Which…is probably very intuitive to anybody who looks at the world. Some kids, they haven’t seen that before? You know, that the branch gets thinner, and the…and the tributaries get more frequent as you go up and up.

HD: Right.

HT: So there’s the whole…Fibonacci sequence of numbers that creates the tree. And if you look at any part of a tree that falls off, it contains that same…geometry.

HD: Right.

HT: So. Like a…pinecone…So err, getting kids to wrap trees in…coloured ribbon an’ things like that, is hilarious…

HD: Have you done that?

HT: Done that. We’ve filled a tree…err we hung plastic ducks, yellow plastic drunks that we found. Somebody found them from a, river, err, duck race, and we hung them, in a tree…and took photos. Kids decided that what they, you know, they, all these resources in an art room, and they could play with the trees. Err…and then they took one duck and put it on the floor? That was a good photo. Yeah, so…

HD: Well, it seem like I’m gonna to have to get you up another tree, an’…do another interview…

HT: Oh yeah next week!

HD: [laugh]

HT: Another broadcast!

HD&HT: [laugh]

HT: Henrik and Hugh! The two H’s go treeing!

HD&HT: [laugh]

HT: Right, we gettin’ down?

HD: [overlap] Cool, yeah.

HT: Right. Cheers that was great.

HD: Mhmm.

HT: That’s the best interview you’ll get.

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Tree 13 :: can never take full credit ::

Posted on May 29, 2010 | Leave a comment

29th May, 2010
Location: Bedminster Bridge Roundabout, Bristol

Silver Birch (a new addiction). Name the tree game. I’ve thought about all the categories and info I could provide – estimate how old / tall it is etc. And write a list of rules that apply to the project – like I’m trying to stick to climbing within the 24 hours of the day – not running over into the next day etc. But it’s my game and my project and I don’t want to write a list of rules. I’d rather make it up as I go along. Someone suggested I carry a fold-up tree – something I can carry with me should I not have access to a tree on a particular day – he then went on to object to me hopping onto a stump for my daily addition / addiction.

So. I don’t know. I’ll see how I get on with naming them, but I’ll leave ages and heights to specially old / tall trees. So. Yes. I really wasn’t in the mood to piss around up a tree today. I left it to the last minute – until 11.45 to stubbornly get it on. I’m glad I did though. Really enjoyed it I’d half considered fobbing it off with the stump and writing “Pissing with rain. Not in the mood today.” as my diary entry. But the birch was easy to climb, and the rain had stopped, leaving only a refreshing wind – almost exhilarating – I look forward to being up a tree in a storm! Perhaps I shouldn’t. Part of the joy is catching satisfying pictures. Creating.

I suppose with photography – being a co-creator is more apparent. You decide on the framing and how much light goes onto the sensor – but the image you collect is already made. Like jamming – the other band members are your co-creators. With photography – it’s nature, or God, or serendipity, or coincidence or…but you can never take full credit. Which makes it more exciting too. Your ‘co-creator’ can surprise you, and deliver something you hadn’t expected.

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Tree 12 :: old hoofing great tree ::

Posted on May 28, 2010 | Leave a comment

28th May, 2010
Location: Ashton Court Estate, Bristol

I was tempted to climb the stump today. Felt like the resurrection was early. Three days early, if not more. I may have done us out of a satisfying narrative by jumping the gun to the huge red tree, too much too soon. And if these trees relate to a personal emotional journey, I did myself out of a healthy transition. A chance to mourn, losing this project. Why not. A good narrative builds slowly, and just when it can’t get any worse, you wheel out the glory and hope. Or perhaps I’m getting too ‘romantic’ again. Yes.

I’ve been pretty glum today, but eventually I crawl out of my cave to find food and a suitable tree. I spot one – a willowy type of thing and on closer inspection realise there’s no way I can get into it and also, that the residents of this tower probably have no idea they have one of the most beautiful trees in south Bristol on their doorstep.   A tree that seems almost perfectly proportioned and very inviting. I’m getting increasingly frustrated by these kinds of trees. They spur me on to climb but lock the door to their sky. Poetic or what. Basically they’re too difficult to get into. So. Instead of that I head to Ashton Court, where trees are abundant.

It takes me a while to muster the courage to cross one of the broken off branches. They are wobbly and must weigh a few tons each. I think – this project could kill me – again. But it’s fine. The good thing is – I’m left with a sense of reverence. Which is good for content to write with. Standing on the trunk where these hulking great branches would have been growing, I am filled with a similar respect as when standing by the sea or in a boat. Or in the mountains, for that matter.

Probably 300 years old. Solid, but fragile somehow – at the same time. It’s difficult to capture its grandeur and scale in a camera.

So…apart from my visions of slipping out of a tree, I looked into buying some equipment that will get me higher in bigger, more difficult trees. And I’ve been told about a tree climbing course, funny to think that you can do a course. Tree climbing always seemed like a child’s activity. But then I suppose playing with cars is too.

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Tree 11 :: the resurrection ::

Posted on May 27, 2010 | Leave a comment

27th May, 2010
Location: Clifton, Triangle green (Swantons Barbers), Bristol


Wow. This is a resurrection. What a tree! This is the kind of tree I’ve been wanting to climb. To be honest, I had a bad night… and this morning, – kind of relationship related. I had it in mind to jump onto a tree stump beside a road with a few sprouts growing out of its patted down top. A bit of a pitiful or hopeful sight, (depending on how you look at it) and again it seemed fitting with the death / resurrection theme.

I’ll jump on the stump another rainy day. (I did – features later with artist Luke Jerram) So I had my hair cut, and right outside on the green was this spectacular tree. I admit that I was slightly nervous up 15 metres off the ground – specially after my minor slip-up / down against the razor sharp knot. Up there – I kept getting flashes of me bouncing off branches all the way to the ground. Just for a moment. Not bouncing on foot either. Quite an experience  – imagining the brief journey to your death. I don’t often get that. My life flashing before my eyes before I live. Could be good. A good wake-up call.

Living close to ‘death’ – with the possibility of death wakes the mind. Makes you more alert. I guess that’s what extreme sports people feel. I think I’d need to get used to it. Perhaps I like living in mediocrity on a daily basis, more than the idea of living with that edge.

That acuteness of experience that comes from danger. I think it’s a case of being more confident up there, and learning to enjoy the fear? So. It’s been an interesting day.

The dead tree outside the old prison was another tree I thought could have worked with this series on the subject. So far it’s been a surprising project – has kept me interested, kept me guessing. On my toes. Still beginners luck?

A quote by a close friend – by text – ‘lov your belly be carefully on that tree (their Bark worse than their bite…Ho Ho Ho) – or not so ho.

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