Wherever you live, there are always opportunities to connect with and to learn about trees. It is lots of fun for children to imagine what older trees may have seen around them over the course of a lifetime of what may have been hundreds of years!
Every year, the Woodland Trust selects a “Tree of the Year” – one for England, and one each for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. If you want to vote for your favourite, go to their website: https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/visiting-woods/tree-of-the-year-2019/ Then try drawing and painting your choice. The Woodland Trust’s winner for England in 2017 was The Gilwell Oak, which sits in Gilwell Park in Epping, Essex. The 2018 winner was Nellie’s Tree in Aberford near Leeds. If you’re nearby, they are well worth a visit!
If you’re looking for dramatic displays of foliage this autumn, you don’t need to travel all the way to the east coast of America, famous for its “fall”. Beautiful colours appear in abundance all across the UK. If you’re searching for rust-coloured leaves, ochre landscapes and autumnal photo opportunities, these are some of the best places to visit, and they include our favourites – the New Forest, the Lake District and Sherwood Forest where Robin Hood famously hid from the Sheriff of Nottingham in a tree called the Major Oak (winner of the Woodland Trust award in 2014).
In London, tree-lovers have made a map of the city’s great trees. And if you’re in the capital, pop into the Natural History Museum which has a cross-section of a Sequoia tree that is 1,300 years old!
If you’d like to get involved in planting trees, Trees for Cities creates events where you and your Little Ones can plant a tree or help to take care of one. By planting a tree together, you are creating something that may well last way beyond their lifetime!
Meanwhile, go and give a big one a big hug!!
