skeleton

An early blip today.

To the side of the A22, as it passes over Ashdown Forest between Nutley and Chelwood Vachery, stands this old, dead tree. I have passed it on my way to and from work every day for the past four years thinking to myself each time I must take a photograph of that tree one day.

Well today was that day.

I love the twisted shape of the tree and was lucky enough this morning to capture it with the sun rising behind it through a blanket of fluffy clouds. I took loads of shots with Mama Bear but just one single shot with Baby Bear which - bearing in mind I intend to photoshop the bejesus out of Mama Bear's shots to really bring out the sky - was actually the best of the bunch.

Chelwood Vachery is an early-20th-century garden, laid out in 1906 by Leonard Rome Guthrie as the setting for a mansion by architect William Flockhart. It comprises a series of terraces descending to a water garden and surrounding arboretum with rhododendron walks. Additional water features were constructed in the woodland from 1925 by the landscaper Gavin Jones.

PS: After careful consideration - and not without some small amount of regret - I have decided to change the original shot for this (somewhat) photoshopped replacement. It is taken from the other side of the tree - with the sun behind me - and this time the shot is with Mama Bear.