Although much of the snow was gone by the time I took these photographs, the evening light was too good to miss. I found myself wondering if you can take anything like the same photo twice, but of course you cannot. And that is pretty much the point. Part of the reason for taking sunset photos around a month apart is to see how the seasons change as the sun shifts, or at least as the earth does. I've waited nothing like a month, but blue skies following snow are too much of a gift.
The lane is changing already, slowly. You can sense the trees breathing, preparing for spring amongst the snow. The common beech, which I'm assuming these are until I can prove otherwise, has a lifespan of 150-200 years. So I cannot be sure if they stood here when Browne mapped the area in 1842. I could find out if it is possible, given that I live in an area famed for its beech trees and since I know something of the Knight family who imported them and who grew them at Simonsbath, at the centre of Exmoor.
Still, whatever was here, I can understand the pull the place may have had for druids. It is stunning, more so than the photographs can show. It feels like a natural beauty but it is not. As natural as trees seem, as much as they are a part of the earth, trees don't grow in rows like this. They're not twisted to form hedges by anything except human will.
A green lane can be defined as "an unmetalled track with field boundaries either side. These boundaries may be banks, hedges, woodland edge, stone walls or fences and often features such as ditches or streams are incorporated within the lanes. The combination of the track, its boundaries and associated features create a landscape unit with its own microclimate and ecology. These sheltered conditions within lanes are of great importance to butterfly populations and may be more botanically species-rich than single hedge boundaries." So it is its own miniature nature reserve, without being natural. This is made by humans, but not by us alone.
And so now I have another path to explore. Just what is it in nature that we find beautiful, and how have we bent it to fit our needs?
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