Castanea

A gloomy wet day. My two big projects - renovating the wooden greenhouse and re-establishing the wildflower meadow - are both put on hold and we head for Croft Castle in Herefordshire. There are some wonderful old trees here including the 'Quarry' oak which is said to be at least a thousand years old. The oak was difficult to photograph but my eye was drawn to a massive Sweet Chestnut tree a few metres away. These are believed to have been grown from chestnuts carried on the ships of the Spanish Armada in1588. The Quarry oak would already have been more than 500 years old when this was planted.