Emily Peel Yates / What do I see and what does it mean to me?

A simple question but how often do we give ourselves the time to properly look and ask?

I can see stunning colours and contrasts; beeches and birch trees standing out against the deep green of the Scots Pine; bright oranges and yellows, deep russets, luminous and translucent greens, grey, browns and blacks. I can see the trees and the ground all covered with a rich carpet of mosses and trees covered in lichens.

I can see a deer fence along the line of an ancient moss covered dyke. I can see and hear the River Tilt thundering down the gorge with rivulets jumping up above the waterfall. I can see two grey Atholl ponies, I can see the rain drops falling off the trees. I can see up through the black branches of the middle aged beech tree I’m sitting under and I can see glimpses of the white sky beyond. I can see thriving life and I can see decay. The mountain looms behind my back but I’m not looking that way.

What does it mean to me? Not so easy to answer. I ‘m thinking about how the woodland I am sitting in appears to be a harmonious community; each tree has found its roots and found its space among its neighbours to grow towards the light yet acting together to form the mutual shelter they need.  The rich colours of the different species seemingly so complementary. Then I think about the Scots Pine and birch being Scottish Natives but they look so spectacular against the backdrop of the non Scottish native beech trees. I’m that English beech, naturalised but not native.

I’m very fond of beech trees. We had two magnificent beech trees in the garden where I grew up. Standing between them as a child I could touch both trunks, one was a copper beech and one a green. I thought of them as my wishing trees. The contrast of colours through the seasons was stunning. That makes me think about family and belonging and how if nature can adapt to change then why can’t we? That leads to talking about work life balance or the lack of it. And so the cycle goes on.