Friday 24 February 2023

Some Impressive Trees In Hampshire & Dorset Again!

For our Summer holiday me and Nathalie decided to check out Hampshire for a change. What we were to happily discover was the people of the county clearly have had a long history of planting Monkey Puzzle trees. The number of large mature trees was quite impressive, there being no better introduction of what's to come is the majestic mature Monkey Puzzle tree you encounter, standing proud by the road, as you approach Lyndhurst from the East. This being followed by another large tree on the road south as you drive out of the village.

High Street - Lyndhurst
High Street - Lyndhurst
Gosport Road - Lyndhurst
Gosport Road - Lyndhurst
Whilst me and Nathalie dive around you sometimes get a weird feeling that there could be a Monkey Puzzle Tree close by. I guess it's because the area has the kind of housing/gardens we often see tress in that we get such a feeling. Whenever I get this feeling I usually start singing a ditty that goes "I've got a feeling there's a Monkey Puzzle Tree in the area." Strangely it does seem that whenever the ditty is sung we, more often than not, see a tree very soon afterwards, however I'm not sure if it's more likley due to the cognitive bias known as the availability heuristic that it feels like that. What I do know though is the next Monkey Puzzle tree we saw was immediately after I'd sung and what a spectacular Monkey Puzzle tree it was, both it's size and its roadside location being truly brilliant.
Lymington Road - New Milton
As we drove around on our holiday we came across a few more lovely mature trees, though a special mention must go to the pair planted in a front garden in Crescent Road Poole. The owners of the property get my upmost respect for allowing these 2 beauties to grow and flourish.
Crescent Road - Poole
Alum Chine Road - Bournemouth
Alum Chine Road - Bournemouth
Wimborne Road - Bournemouth
Poole Road
Poole Road
Poole Park
Poole Park
Western Road Surface Car Park - Poole
Milford Road - Lymington
Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 883

Six More Trees Spotted Down South

A  very quick update on 6 trees that we spotted in early 2022. First off two lovely trees in Notting Hill, they have been planted in a really suitable location and hopefully will mature into 2 impressive Monkey Puzzles.

St Ann's Road - Notting Hill
St Ann's Road - Notting Hill
St Ann's Road - Notting Hill

The next 2 were spotted when visiting my Dad and Sandra in their lovely new posh flat out in the sticks. Both trees were in Buckinghamshire.

Amersham Road - Gerrards Cross
Deancroft Road - Chalfont St Peters

Finally we happened to spot that London Zoo has at least 2 more Monkey Puzzle trees in its grounds taht can be added to the ones we spotted a while ago.

London Zoo
Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 872

Tuesday 21 February 2023

Outer Hebrides

Me and Nathalie decided to visit the Outer Hebrides back in February 2002. On paper it might not be the best time of year to visit, with the weather always threatening to mess up the best laid plans,. However despite one or two 'scares', such as the ferry company cancelling all future sailings of one ferry with a day's notice to catch the last crossing the next day, we managed to complete our trip from Barra in the south island hopping to the Isle of Lewis in the north. The plane landing on the beach at Barra was the perfect start to the holiday. As it was it turned out, by visiting out of season, we were given the chance to explore the beautiful islands without encountering the mass of people that appear during the summer tourist season.

Nathalie enjoying the solitude of Baleshare Beach

We weren't expecting to see any Monkey Puzzle trees during our trip but happily we were proved completely wrong quite early on. The first trees we spotted were on a small inaccessible island near Askernish on South Uist, we can not be certain how many there were but from counting their tops we decided upon four.

Askernish - South Uist

The next tree we saw was one in Carinish, North Uist which appeared to be doing well in its roadside location. This was followed by three young roadside trees near Seilebost on the Isle of Harris. It would be good to return when they have had a chance to mature, to see whether they have managed to survive in their quite exposed location.

Carinish - North Uist
Seilebost - Isle of Harris

The final 5 trees we spotted were all on the Isle of Lewes, they seemed to pop up when we were least expecting them. In fact the trees we spotted qualify as the most Northerly and Westerly trees seen so far. I'm sure there must be more trees on the Outer Hebrides that we missed but having seen 13 different trees, when anticpating none, made what was a magical holiday just that little bit extra special!

Stornoway 1 -  - Isle of Lewes
Stornoway 2 - Isle of Lewes
Marybank - Isle of Lewes
Stornoway 3 - Isle of Lewes
Uigen - Isle of Lewes

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 866

Email Notifications - An Update

Some time ago Google stopped the email notification widget the site used. This allowed people to have an email sent to them every time there was new post on the blog.

I have just noticed that you can copy this option by requesting an invite to new post email notifications. So if there is anyone reading this blog who'd like an invite, just leave me a message in the comments section of any post with the email address you'd like notifications sent to or send me an email to the one in my profile. Once the invite is sent you or I can delete the post if you want. If you ever change your mind then it is easy to cancel the subscription if you want, by using the unsubscribe option in the notification email.

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 853

Monday 20 February 2023

West Sussex, Blackfield, North Acton & Northampton

As I've been a bit slow in updating theblog I realise I've quite a few new trees to llog. I'm therefore going to skip any preamble and just post pictures with their locations until I've caught up. Though I will make an exception with my next post as it covers and area I was surprised and delighted to fing plenty of Monkey Puzzle trees. 

Bishop's Palace Garden - Chichester
Hillfoot - Cocking
Church Lane - Birdham
Middleton Road - Felpham
Hampton Lane - Blackfield 1
Hampton Lane - Blackfield 2
Friary Road - North Acton
Kingsley Road - Northampton
St Gile's Terrace - Northampton
Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 853

Sunday 19 February 2023

The Greatest 'Discovery' Of My Quest So Far - Robin Hood's Bower (2021)

Whilst this blog talks about my Quest to see as many Monkey Puzzle Trees as humanly possible, the truth is without the support and assistance of  my incredible sidekick Nathalie, my spotting and hence this blog would be so much poorer.  What started as 'one man's quest' has morphed into two people's! The most common way for us to spot a Monkey Puzzle tree is when we randomly spot one when out and about, which more often than not is when we're on holiday. However, very rarely we will come across an article on the internet/newspaper/magazine or even on TV that features a particular Monkey Puzzle tree or trees that cry out to be seen.

It was after such a TV programme had briefly mentioned Robin Hood's Bower's Monkey Puzzle trees, located in Southleigh Woods Somerset that led to me & Nathalie driving for over an hour and half from Dorset to check them out. We parked up in a narrow country lane and set out in a light drizzle to find what we hoped would be something rather special.  What we were to discover amongst the mature pine trees of Southleigh Woods (as the title of this post indicates) was the greatest group of trees of the Quest so far!

As the Monkey Puzzle trees first came into view, it is fair to say, I became quite emotional and was left temporarily speechless. What stood in front of us was a group of over 100 mature and juvenile trees, it felt like we had discovered the Holy Grail of Monkey Puzzles. Once we were actually walking amongst them the sheer scale of the trees could really be appreciated. I expect it is probably the closest you can get to 'experiencing' what a Chilean collection of Monkey Puzzle trees feels like, short of travelling all the way to their native home.

Nathalie chilling amongst the trees

The group of trees consisted of a large number of fully mature trees, with a healthy scattering of younger trees amongst them, clearly the trees have been reproducing for many years. The younger trees ranged from small sapplings to adolescents of various sizes, whilst the floor was awash with old seed pods. The trees roughly covered 1.25 acres and numbered at least 200, a figure me and Nathalie agreed upon after a couple of attempts at counting them. We spent quite a while soaking up the atmosphere and the drizzle, which would normally be a pain, just added to the magical feeling. I don't think I'll find anywhere in the UK as special as this when it comes to the Quest, and we plan to return at a later date to soak up the very special atmosphere these wonderful tress create.

An aerial view of the trees

My reasearch later uncovered the unusual reason for these trees existence. They were apparently planted by the Longleat Estate, circa 1965-1967, at the suggestion of the then Lord Weymouth, Alexander Thynn, later 7th Marquis of Bath, purely as a whim when replanting other trees in the area - link. I'm no fan of the UK's landed gentry but he is one Lord I would sincerely love to thank personally for what he has created, a truly special place.

The floor covered in spent seeds

I have included just four photos but will post a larger selection in my next post. Once I've updated all the other trees I've seen (unfortunately due me procrastinating there are quite a few) I hope to post a little more about this very special place.

The amazing canopy
Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 844