Living with trees
Our small back garden backs onto a triangular patch of ground that contains four mature Ash trees. One is a single-leaf ash. Beyond the trees, two railway lines cross. One heads from Gospel Oak to Barking and the other goes from Tottenham Hale into London.
Our estate was built in the late 1970s on a site that was once the largest furniture factory in Europe. Where stacks of wood and machinery once stood there are houses and trees.
As I look out our kitchen window a great spotted woodpecker is eating from one of the feeders we hung on one of the trees. Some smaller birds are waiting their turn. There is a hierarchy at the bird feeders. The ring-necked parakeets tend to dominate the goldfinches and great tits. The robin waits until everyone has had a turn.
Living so close to big trees is a beautiful thing. You feel much more connected to the changes these big trees make throughout the year. The ash behind us is one of the last trees on the estate to come into leaf, weeks behind the horse chestnuts that respond much earlier to the change in seasons.
The ash hasn’t been pruned since we lived here yet it seems to have its own cycle of shedding smaller branches. Some of this is supported by windy winter weather but it doesn’t feel like storm damage. We often collect these sticks and pile them against a wall. I’m not sure if this is helpful. There have been times when we have done the same with the leaves, collecting them to make mulch for the garden. Mostly we have left the leaves to do their mulching where they fell.
The sounds in our garden are a mix of trains, a dump on the other side of the railway tracks and bird songs. I’m trying to get better at recognising the different calls. I find it is so much harder than visually identifying birds. This seems like a common challenge but I’m not sure why.
The ring-necked parakeet has arrived, a squawking call I can easily identify. They have an unfair advantage over the other birds, a combination of their size and dexterity. The collective noun for parrots is flock but people also use pandemonium of parrots, which fits better. You always know when the parakeets are on the move.
