Beech tree, Coombes Moor, 18th September 2008A Tolkien morning, that began cold and misty and soon warmed up to another perfect September day; warm, still, clear. Tolkien describes an early autumn beginning to the hobbits' journey, a passage I find myself returning to over and over again. We spent the morning in a medieval gatehouse and a sixteenth-century manor house; now reduced in size and importance to a cottage that is for sale. Walls three feet thick, huge low deeply chamfered beams, a giant fireplace taking up half a room. And a large barn, suitable for a studio. A heavy dew on the grass, but the sun warm through old glass and cobwebs.
We discovered the other day that some tree-lopping needs to be done on the giant beech in the garden. It could endanger the power supply to this house and the one next door, so it needs a trim. I don't know when this will happen, but it made me photograph it this afternoon, before any work is done on it and before it turns any more. Everybody who comes to this house passes beneath the beech tree; it overhangs the lane like a welcome.
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