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Gold Gato
, January 24, 2012
(view all comments by Gold Gato)
There are trees in the book that seem to reach to the sky. Trees that are so large, they act as living rooms to humans. Trees that could only have been brought to us by the mythological giants of old, for who else would have been able to tend to these fascinating ancients.
This book focuses upon trees both native to Britain and those brought from abroad and planted for the citizens to revere. My favorite is the Xerxes tree, a Plane Tree at Cambridge. The story goes that Persia's greatest king saw such a tree while marching to conquer Greece and attached golden ornaments to its boughs, much as a man gives gifts to a woman. The king also assigned a guardian to forever live under the tree. Amazingly enough, the tree that lives at Cambridge came from seeds taken from Thermopylae, Greece...where Xerxes met defeat against Athens.
You don't need to be a tree hugger to really enjoy this volume of photographs and musings. But you will certainly admire and respect trees more...and if that means one more tree planted in a garden, then so be it.
Book Season = Spring
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