Natural Decoration

This is a bit difficult to see, so I’ll explain in hopes of making it clearer.

A long time ago, when the dwarf apple tree was young, I tied it to a wooden stake with a long, narrow scrap of black polar fleece. After some years the stake rotted and I removed it without cutting the tie, which has hung there ever since. Nature doesn’t like polar fleece and has covered it up with lichens and mosses. The loop passes around the trunk at the top of the image and is tied in a reef knot at about the centre. The two ends, one short and wide and the other long and narrow, hang below the knot.