This time I took my tape measure. And I think my oak is just about 4.5m in girth 1.5m up the trunk. Look, maybe 4.4m, but I'm going to claim the extra 10cm, dammit.
There it is.
I also wanted to see if those fallen trees were still budding. I had wondered if they'd fallen so recently that the leaves hadn't yet died. But, no, as the front page photo shows, four days later, no sign of the leaves dying. I broke a twig off a standing tree of the same species to see if I could identify it and in just a few hours the leaves are wilting.
I think it is a Lime (I think) - but this was more by seeing similar buds on the tree outside the front of my house. Well. The book suggested that Limes can do this sprouting when felled and will root into the ground - so that this will be a walking tree, creating a new line of Limes... that is, if it IS a Lime.
In this photo you can see that one of the roots (on the left) still seems connected to the fallen underside of the trunk.
This shows how one of the fallen trees brought down a blackthorn - those are the roots of the blackthorn - which was in blossom beyond the frame of the photo. You can see the twig with budding leaves running along the top of the fallen trunk of this Lime (or whatever it is) - which, seems to have finished its journey.
This trunk, though, is completely broken - and there were no twigs with budding leaves on this tree.
This one two had crashed through a blackthorn - but the resilient blackthorn was still alive.
Then I found this... a tree whose whole base was a cavern!
And yet it sprouts. I am sure that's ash.
And above that hollowed base, the tree is still alive.
Finally, how the wood has eaten wire. I love how trees do this.
We, say the trees, shall overcome.
ADDENDUM: I have now decided mystery fallen trees are NOT Limes. But I leave that for another post, to keep you in suspense.
It's a chance to see what happens. Love that photo of the tree eating wire. I await patiently for the identifications ... Oh and hurrah for entering the oak into the database.