Gog and Magog - ancient Oaks of Avalon

These veterans are Gog and Magog, and they have had a troubled history in recent years, each one has been set alight by berks leaving tea-lights. The combination of fire and living wood is not a happy one:

There is someone out there, possibly still in the Avalon landscape, sitting with the knowledge that, in their misguided understanding of ‘honouring the trees’, they instead have burnt the bugger down.

trees
Magog is in the foreground, the still living tree, with Gog behind

I didn't get to see Gog and Magog properly on this visit, because the trees are surrounded by a whacking great fence pretty much up to adult eye height. The notice posted on it says that 

Spring is just around the corner and you will see everything bounce back and blossom. The fence will blend naturally into the landscape

Err, no, it bloody well won't. I can see why the landowner wants to fence this off to stop twits putting tealights into the trees and climbing the branches, but no way is that fence going to blend into the landscape unless covered by a thick layer of ivy, and then you will only see the crown of the trees. Only my camera got to see this view of these magnificent fellows, and that was only at home by stitching lots of pictures taken peering through the gaps in the railings. It was really hard to get a picture of the sign in front of the trees through the fine mesh.

sign
the sign, from before the fence, presumably

I came here this time to survey the nesting rooks behind Middlewick Farm, a rook roost is a noisy and uneasy sort of place.

Rook roost
the rook nesting site, with Pen Hill TV mast behind

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