It's still hard to focus on anything else... and these photographs were taken on the day I last saw Bobbit, May 11th. I went to London to see a play and decided to walk through Green Park and St James' Park on the way to the Old Vic Theatre.
The most astonishing thing: a real black swan event.
This was sitting peacefully next to a mute swan - who, unlike the last swans I featured, did not seem to mind the multi-species environment. He was enormous and when a little girl squatted next to him I realised that she - maybe ten years old - was smaller than the swan. Just as well he was calm.
And he wasn't bothered by the greylag geese on the water.
But what really amazed me on this walk was how the plane trees have wood that seems to act like water... it seems to flow, to settle at the base of the trunk and seep into the environment.
I learned that concrete acts like a fluid and so does glass... both flow though they appear to be solid. Could plane wood be the same?
CC saw the same effect in a linden tree on Prince Edward Island.
As for the play, Machinal, it was an excellent production and superbly acted. Rosie Sheehy was superb. Even so, I didn't really have the profound sense of capture that I seek in the theatre. My friend did and I was delighted about that, as it was my idea to go. Mind you, we only paid £13 for our tickets!
Black swans are rare, aren't they? Gosh, I'm glad the big white one was a mellow swan-person!!
I'm thinking about "flow" and the bases of the plane trees - flow and the change of state from fluid to solid. Very interesting. "Why" ever it happens, the result is a wide base that probably helps to support the tree, especially if it's old and big. But the "flow" thing - maybe gravity is involved -- and/or the fluids/ sap etc that go up and down the vascular systems of the trunk and branches. Maybe some of the fluids somehow collect at the bottom of the trunk and transform into a solid wood. Dunno. Interesting. ... Thanks for posting my photo o…