Merry Tom and the Morrigan Oak

Walking along Brampton Valley Way, well, running, sort of, has advantages as it's not muddy. Everywhere else is claggy or slippy and not a lot of fun. Another advantage is to meet new trees.

This one drew me right in.

I love how this tree has grown. The name recalls the three versions of the goddess, Badb, Macha, and Nemain and the tree looks as though three trunks have entwined themselves.

And, of course, I could climb up!

When I descended, I saw something else that made me sure of the magic of the tree... she has emerging from her the image of the roe buck.

There was an even older and more entangled oak on the top of the railway siding.

This one too I was able to climb. I held on like a squirrel or a koala and felt the sure strength of the tree, rooted and reaching.

It exhilarates me.

Earlier, I had been wondering about moss. I'd veered off the path into a little plantation. And I was looking at the different heights to which the moss had climbed. What determines how high the moss can go? The top line tends to seem rather straight as though there is a cut-off point.

What it seemed was as if, in general or on average, the moss was higher on cherry than on oak and on oak than on ash.

Odd.

Also odd is random distribution. Here there was no clear thrush's anvil, so why so many snail shells in one place?

What all this makes me think - plus the interesting formation of the Morrigan Oak - is that, yes, of course there are causes that you could find to answer the whys. But these would be so varied, with seemingly disconnected elements, and some so minor and many so nearly random (chance events) that ultimately there may be no answer that could be computed. Not exactly. All you could say is that the statistical likelihood is that the range would be between x and y and a probability of the likelihood of where in that range.

Thing is, what happens - the height of the moss, shells per square foot, hollows and twinings - is not a conceptual probability, it is an event. It is the world that has computed, already and always, what happens here and there and when and how. The answer does not lie in the computation but in the world.