Ian
I also used to partake in a little birch-bending out on the Ash Ranges
in my early teens. By the time I reached my early twenties and was
studying at Merrist Wood I had graduated onto to other forms of
vegetation-based adrenalin sports. My fellow studes and I would
entertain ourselves in the college woods by 'Rhody-surfing', a process
by which you would pull yourself over the seemingly endless canopy of
Rhododendron to see how far you can get without touching the ground. Oh
how we laughed.
J
-----Original Message-----
From: Ian May [mailto:ian.may@xxxxxxxxx.gov.uk]
Sent: 23 February 2009 17:20
To: UK Tree Care
Subject: RE: Beachcomings & Birch Swinging
We used to call it 'Birch Bending' at Merrist Wood, not that I would
ever admit to knowing anything about it, particularly as the trees
didn't always return to vertical straight away. I imagine it would have
been quite a buzz to do, while in the woods unsupervised between
lectures, but I wouldn't want to be expelled for it.
I think the reference to past tense suggests that people might want to
distance themselves from the practice but between you and me, I can
think of more boring pastimes.
Oh BTW, it was confirmed to me recently by the 'One Show' I think, that
the swingers are the ones with Pampas grass in their front gardens, not
that I have any more than a passing interest of course but its fun to
speculate.
Ian May
Arboricultural Officer
Planning
Rushmoor Borough Council
01252 398737
Rushmoor Borough Council welcomes the submission of planning
applications electronically, via the Planning Portal
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-----Original Message-----
From: Clive Mayhew [mailto:CMayhew@xxxxxxxxx.gov.uk]
Sent: 23 February 2009 16:23
To: UK Tree Care
Subject: RE: Beachcomings & Birch Swinging
But there's the surprise .... the decent is slow and graceful as the
tree stretches to lower you down, not 'twangy' or spring-like at all.
I note all the replies to this so far are in the past tense, when people
'were younger'. Does that make me the oldest, or perhaps the only,
swinger in town?
-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Jones [mailto:nick@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.co.uk]
Sent: 23 February 2009 15:44
To: UK Tree Care
Subject: RE: Beachcomings & Birch Swinging
Clive you may well have inadvertently stumbled upon a unique method to
dispose of naughty children. Hold this and twang spring to mind!
Nick
-----Original Message-----
From: Clive Mayhew [mailto:CMayhew@xxxxxxxxx.gov.uk]
Sent: 23 February 2009 15:23
To: UK Tree Care
Subject: Beachcomings & Birch Swinging
For those bookworms out there with a more spiritual arboricultural bent,
I've just finished 'The Wild Places' by Robert Macfarlane. Lots of
general wild Britain stuff, along with more specific tree ponderings
such as; the climbing qualities of various trees, and whether it would
be possible to cross a woodland by swinging through the branches and not
touch the ground?
He also quotes (page 264) the Robert Frost poem 'Birches':
"I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
.....
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree, And climb black branches up a
snow-white trunk Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more, But
dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches."
Macfarlane also says. "I told him about the birch trees I was climbing
in Langdale, how whippy they were, and how, if you found a young tree
slender but strong enough, you could climb to its summit, and allow your
weight to bend the tree's tip over and down, so that it deposited you
lightly upon the ground from which you had begun, before springing back
up to the vertical."
What to do????
Read it ... went out on Sunday afternoon and did it!
Can safely say it was by turns the stupidest, most audacious, and by a
clear mile the funniest thing I'd ever done in climbing boots..... and
to my amazement no limbs were broken!
Anyone else had a go? I'd never heard of it before, but now I view every
'young slender but strong' birch as a potential swinger ....
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