Can you visualise the landscape populated by trees of great longevity?
Imagine what sweeping changes, and what static continuities one single multiple centenarian tree would witness? Whose human lives and whose stories down the generations would have interacted with one or more out of a large related group of venerable survivor ancient trees? When I look out on a green landscape, I sometimes recall H G Wells’ science fiction story. He describes the time travellers on their time machine watch the rising and falling of buildings, and the birth, flourishing and deaths of trees in high speed time-lapse.
This fantasy has always been a compelling reminder of my own place and my scale against the timeline of our planet!
