Autumn gold at the Gu Guanyin Buddhist Temple

The Ginkgo biloba is an all round brilliant tree and when I say brilliant, I mean brilliant! See this fantastic Colossal posting of an ancient towering ginkgo tree located within the walls of the Gu Guanyin Buddhist Temple in China's Zhongnan Mountains. The leaves of this 1,400 year old tree lie like piles of shining gold leaf. My attempts of a fine wee Ginkgo at Glasgow Botanic Gardens this autumn now seem so sun-bleached and dull in comparison (ahem, it'll be all that Scottish sun-bleaching...). WIKI points out the Ginkgo is also the official tree of the Japanese capital of Tokyo.

Summer adventures: the oak

There is always magic to be found, right on your doorstep. Today was a day for such an adventure, something my pal Ashley calls micro adventures. Hiking in to the local woods with rucksacks of rope, Carla and I soon set our sights set on a very fine lanky oak. This tree runs at a slight angle with  branches for quite some way making getting a line in some fun. And throwing is way harder than it looks (ask my friend Geoff!). It's that winning combo between explosive thrust and trajectory; concentrate too much on the first and the latter goes out of the window, or more accurately, behind you! A few throws soon got us to a neat fork at about 20m. Some climbing later, Carla and I hung out in the undercanopy, which for this Tim is the best thing in the world!

 

Summer adventures: the beech

Early one August morning before breakfast while it was still cool, we nipped up this gorgeous beech. The smooth, spreading limbs were deliciously cool to the touch. We were soon lost in the canopy and only rumbling tums persuaded us to return to earth. On the way back down we found a cracker of a branch for branch walking!