Pictures Just Pictures: POLLARDED TREE IN PARK

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

POLLARDED TREE IN PARK

Lucy Corrander - Pollarded Tree in Park - 12th February 2009

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9 comments:

Hermes said...: I've never really liked polladed trees and these look sinister to me against that sky.; February 17, 2009 at 7:51 AM
Lucy Corrander said...: I don't like them either!

But in this case . . . there's a ring of them round a bandstand . . . a really weird arrangement . . . and, just at the moment when they are very dark and leafless, they are interestingly and impressively strange, alien sculptures.

Pollarded trees lining streets - I grew up where this was common and they were the first things in the world which struck me as ugly.

When I asked why they were like this - and was told it was because the branches would otherwise grow too close to people's windows . . . that's my earliest memory of thinking something was badly planned!

And the pollarding of trees also introduced me to the idea of conscious cruelty - long before I was aware of it between humans!

So . . . to find a group of pollarded trees which I find in any way worthy of photographing . . . !

Lucy; February 17, 2009 at 8:06 AM
Anonymous said...: Yes they are ugly. I do wonder if the cost of pruning would be better spent replacing them with more suitable trees. We have some locally - in the pavement, literally 5 feet from front doors. Can't be good for the foundations.; February 17, 2009 at 12:02 PM
Victoria Summerley said...: This is a really good example of how photography can make something ugly look beautiful. These trees look really sculptural and the light is fantastic. But I'm sure if I went past them in real life, I'd think: "Poor trees!" Like you, I grew up in a street where they never seemed to stop chopping the trees about.; February 17, 2009 at 3:11 PM
Lucy Corrander said...: Hello Easy Gardener

I wonder what people are thinking of when they plant trees in pavements and so close to houses . . . and it's still happening!

And trees so close to the edges of roads they will bash the top decks of buses when they are grown.

Can anyone really plant a tree with the intention of pollarding it one day, or lopping it one-sided?

Lucy; February 17, 2009 at 6:55 PM
Lucy Corrander said...: Hello Victoria

I was almost mesmerised by this circle of trees.

I don't know if you clicked on the picture to enlarge it - but seen like that, the branches are almost unbearably ugly and sinister.

Lucy; February 17, 2009 at 6:58 PM
HappyMouffetard said...: Very snister. Like pleading hands reaching up into the sky.; February 19, 2009 at 2:12 PM
HappyMouffetard said...: Actually, looking at the photo again, not so much pleading hands but fists being shaken at the sky.; February 19, 2009 at 2:13 PM
Lucy Corrander said...: Happy Mouffetard - I agree with your second comment - these fists look very agressive. The more I look at this picture, the more weird and frightening their shapes become. They also seem like sentient, horrible creatures - very Dr Who-ish.

Lucy; February 21, 2009 at 6:37 PM