Sandalwood Santalum album L., commonly known as East Indian Sandalwood or Chandan, is a small tropical tree highly prized for its wood and scented oil. Its wonderful fragrant oil is used in perfumes, toiletries and incense. It is a fascinating tree in many ways. Sandalwood: the tree and its cultivationContinue Reading
The culture, traditions, aesthetics of wood have been largely overlooked by scientists and the policy community. Trees and wood are at the heart of our future: to live sustainably we must use more wood while conserving and expanding our forests. Continue Reading
I enjoy the subjects provided by the Weekly photo challenge. This week I’ve cheated, just a little, as the theme is Sunset and I have posted instead a sunrise. I like this photo so I thought I could get away with posting it. While on holiday in France in July,Continue Reading
Deep in the walnut-fruit forests of Kyrgyzstan, miles from the nearest track passable by a 4×4, I was climbing a narrow path when the family group suddenly appeared around a corner. I quickly asked (with gestures only as I don’t speak Kyrgyz) whether I could take a photo, and after Dad’s nodding approval I managed to take just two frames as they carried on past.Continue Reading
Photos of my recent trip to Kyrgyzstan among the walnut fruit forestsContinue Reading
Britain has many wonderful collections of trees in arboreta, botanic gardens and country parks. Many of these are some of the oldest collections in the world. I’ve created an interactive Google map showing the finest collections of trees in Britain. Click on the map icons to read more about eachContinue Reading
Visits to walnut growers in the USA laid the foundation to a tree improvement programme for black walnut in the United Kingdom.Continue Reading
After yesterday’s inactivity it was good to get back to work collecting walnut seeds today. However, I was in a bad mood after we were kept waiting for a long time this morning without an apology! Once that we got collecting in the forest my mood improved and we had a useful day.Continue Reading
We’ve been here one week today but time seems immeasurable: it feels like a lifetime ago that my companion, Peter Savill, and I left London Heathrow. We had another good day collecting walnuts; this time in a new area further East. Mid-morning, we’d stopped in a remote area for our usual snack of chai and lepyoshkas …Continue Reading
We spent until 1200 packing up and getting ready to leave Bishkek for our flight to Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second city. After many complicated discussions we (my companion Peter, our student translator Askar, and me) finally got underway to Manas airport via a taxi. We arrived early with four hours to spare. The only interesting thing to happen was the sudden fall …Continue Reading
In 1997 I undertook an expedition to Kyrgyzstan with friend and colleague Peter Savill, to collect walnut seeds from the naturally occurring walnut-fruit forests. Stranded in the capital city Bishkek for three days, following the loss of our luggage by the airline somewhere en route in Kazakstan, a frustrating timeContinue Reading
