30 April 2010 The Birnam Oak

I have never before seen a tree with such personality, such sleepy menace, so old, leaning heavily on its crutches, the last soldier standing, who once rumbled up its roots from the earth and lumbered to Dunsinane Hill.

Yes, I know that Birnam wood doesn’t really come to Dunsinane, and that Macbeth, as usual, takes the witches too literally, but still… standing before this medieval tree, I could well believe that were it moved to do so, it could move.