This is not a golf story, but a few days ago on the golf course, while I was once again blocked out by a tree, I wondered how it was that slow growing things like these actually make it to adulthood, especially the ones like this that stand alone in the middle of a farmers field, or a fairway. How come, when they emerge as a tiny, tender shoot they are not nipped off by a rabbit or a grazing sheep. Why aren't they crushed by a boot or a hoof, or tilled into the soil by an implement? Just how do they survive those first few vulnerable years?
I'm captivated by their beauty and fascinated by the thought of their history, especially the long-lived species like oak or sweet chestnut, which commonly live 700 or 800 years, and many beyond 1000.
I imagine how many land workers have sheltered from the sun or the rain beneath its boughs, how many backs have leaned against its trunk, how many weary feet were rested, lunches eaten, and girls kissed under its canopy. How many generations of a particular species of bird have nested in its branches, and are the ones nesting there now direct descendants of the ones that nested there 800 years ago?
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So yesterday, I was walking through my own little paddock as I do virtually every day of my life on my way to the snicket gate to take the dog for a walk when I noticed this.
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How the Hell did that get there?
I no longer have horses, but evey now and then someone drops one off for me to keep an eye on for a few weeks or months. Perhaps one with an injury or a bad habit. I admit though, now that my friends from another life are getting older, many of them, like me, are out of the "Horse job" so my paddock gets used less often.
That said, it's only two or three years since there were a couple of yearling fillies in there and to the best of my recollection they grazed it bare.
Once a year, if there have been no horses, I wait for a soggy day and I tow a big old tractor tyre all over it for a couple of hours. It keeps it grassy and prevents it from going wild.
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I'm a noticer, I notice things. How could a tree establish itself right in the middle of the paddock without me noticing? What's more, I suspected it was an oak, if it was, how long had it taken to get to this stage?
It's about 3ft tall now so at a guesstimate, 3 or 4 years?
Perhaps it isn't an oak, I thought, maybe a beech or a birch? Time to investigate...
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