We – well, probably me more than him, are great lovers of trees, and as a child I climbed, wandered among, sat under – and canoed under, many different trees in spinneys, woods and along river banks with willows trailing their branches in rivers and streams. We decided a while ago to become members of Westonbirt Arboretum in Gloucestershire thinking since it was just over an hour away we could and would visit often and enjoy seeing the variety of trees, enjoy the walks, and perhaps picnic in the lovely grounds. However, for whatever reason, we haven’t until today.
We set off using a travel app because although we knew how to get from home to nearly-there, we weren’t quite sure of the last few miles. We didn’t use it until we got to the nearly-there point – hoping we would see sign posts as it is such a popular place to visit. We were deceived – for some reason the app decided not only to send us on a scenic route, but maybe realising it had no idea where we meant, it took us on a circular tour of the area and we went round and round along tiny country lanes and farm tracks until we were so frustrated we abandoned it. I think husband was secretly wishing we had a paper map, but he restrained himself and I tried another app and within fifteen minutes we cruised into Westonbirt, parked up and headed straight to the loos and then the café.
We had a very nice cup of coffee and toasted sandwich, and then we set off to explore. We had hoped to spend many hours there, but our travel difficulties had cut short our visit. It’s not too far from hom, which was why we became members, so we will visit again and today our visit was brief (although we dod enjoy our lunch). It has over 2,500 different trees, apparently, and in our short visit we saw a tiny fraction of them although we did see plenty of individual specimens.
Westonbirt Arboretum is one of the most beautiful and important plant collections in the world. With 15,000 specimens, and 2,500 species of tree from all over the world, the arboretum plays a vital part in research and conservation, as well as being a stunningly beautiful place to visit and explore rare, interesting and beautiful plants from the furthest corners of the globe.
There is an elevated walkway which we strolled along, seeing trees from a very different perspective from out usual ground level looking up view. I couldn’t help thinking of this:
https://www.tiktok.com/@adrianbliss/video/7063537182098672901?lang=en
Lois Elsden 