Tag: Beech trees

Sometimes on summer evenings I step
Out of my house to look at trees
Propping darkness up to the silence.
~Paul Zimmer from “A Final Affection”

It isn’t summer quite yet, but soon.  It does not feel like summer here in Northern Ireland although we did see some blue skies as we traveled to the northern coast to see Giant’s Causeway and castle ruins and a collection of seaside farms and villages unlike anywhere else in the world.

But my favorite moment was walking beneath these 300+ year old beech trees, now known as “Dark Hedges”, planted as an entry way to Grace Hill mansion, the Stuart family estate.  Even in their old age, they cling to one another overhead, reaching out to their neighbors and creating the filtered light beneath.   There is no sign pointing the way to this road –they are simply a lane in farming country that is particularly inspiring to experience.  Today a farmer was mowing hay right next to the trees, probably bemused that anyone bothers to stop and take pictures of a few old trees.

The beeches have been around long before me, and with their overarching sheltering of each other, they will be here long after.   I should be more like the twists and turns of the limbs of the beeches, reaching out, leaning in and holding on for dear life, to prop up the darkness so it can’t overwhelm.

As long as there is light, even just a little, all will be well.

The Dark Hedges –photo by E Gibson