LONDON TREES: Richmond 1

Oak trees everywhere, and all of them hundreds of years older than me - what a place! I'm in Richmond Park, and I am surrounded by huge, old oaks, hundreds of years of age. Time moves more slowly here. I settle myself with my against this fine tree and gaze up at the limb stretching out above my head. The sun is dazzling, and warm on my skin  although the air in the shadows is bitter cold.

The sky is that pure blue when there are no clouds and everything seems to hangs motionless, quietly. Tattered lobed leaves fall slowly, irregularly, like big crisp snowflakes; spider webs  shine in the sharp light; and some kind of small flies follow some kind of dance. I look up above me at the scratch of claw on branch and notice now the jackdaws anxiously guard nest holes, guarding them from each other and from the noisy, squawking parakeets that are also eyeing up old woodpecker holes and tree cavities. The sun drops and the air is cold; I stand up, stretch, and wander slowly back through the woods towards the perimeter, towards the world of houses and cars and bustle. My meandering path takes me towards an curious oak, small and squat though with a nice canopy; it is only when I am right close up that I realise quite how big it is - a very impressive tree!