To the trees!
Created by iandknight 3 years ago
Solvitur Ambulado is the famous latin quote attributed to Saint Augustine, which simply translates into ‘it is solved by walking’. Having both being recently bereaved, Clare and I both had plenty of solving, and therefore walking to do.
‘To the trees’ became our own battle cry during the last three years whenever Clare and I needed to regroup, find mutual support in each-other’s company by walking and talking before seeking out our own special bench at Westonbirt Arboretum (and woe-betide anyone who had managed to beat us to it)! Being almost equidistant from Gloucester and Bristol, the national Arboretum at Westonbirt was a perfect spot in which to walk and solve. Maggie the Jack Russell often came along to do her own thinking and problem-solving.
According to my calculations, Clare and I must have easily walked in excess of 80km in total, each time taking new lesser-trodden detours through the avenues of trees in all seasons and weathers working through each-others bereavement experiences, sharing latest news, family updates and jokes whilst gathering plenty of visual stimulation from the ever changing canvas of colours as the seasons cycled from the bleakness of winter, through to the new life of spring, the heat of summer before the magical burst of reds, oranges and browns of the leaves signalled the onset of autumn.
Although there were constant photo-opportunities all-around, it was often better to put our iPhones back into our pockets and just observe and take in the myriad of leaf-forms and colours on show. One tree feature that always caught my eye was the red berry of the English Yew tree (Taxus baccata). Although not true a berry but a fleshy coating surrounding a single seed, its vivid red colour always caught my attention. I even used a photograph of the Yew and its berries as the theme for some Christmas cards I sent out in 2019.
The berry of the Yew is the only part of the tree that is not highly toxic to both humans and animals with 100g of Yew needles being considered as fatal to an adult. The use of Yew wood in creating the lethal English longbow used to devastating effect by Henry V’s army at the battle of Agincourt, has done nothing to remove the Yew’s long association with death.
However, despite this, in more recent years, the highly poisonous needles of the Yew have been found to contain certain compounds called taxanes, which once extracted, for the basis of the chemotherapy drug docetaxel which has proven effective in combating lung, prostate and breast cancer. Nowadays organisations such as the National Trust who have plenty of Yew topiary on their estates to keep trimmed, are collecting up their huge piles of yew needles and sending them off to a laboratory in Essex where this drug is manufactured.
So, little did we know during our walks how crucial trees such as the Yew are in helping us to fight disease including during Clare’s own personal battle with cancer, as well as helping us both with our general mental wellbeing.