Scots Pine

When I first saw these back at the end of April, I thought 'ooh, baby pine cones'... but I am glad I did not embarrass myself by posting at the time, because they just kept growing....

They are the male flowers of the Scots Pine... they are actually teeny cones though... and parts of the pine trees are covered in them, mainly, but not exclusively the lower parts....

Meanwhile, other shoots have been sprouting to produce these female 'flowers'...

and this time they really are 'baby' pine cones.....

Most, but by no means all of these are higher up.... it is thought that this is to aid cross-pollination- pollen will drift across & up to fertilize other trees, rather than directly up...

the cones take two years to mature, before opening up to drop their seeds....

Yvonne, over at The Organic Writer is hosting this months Festival of The Trees.... she requested artistic submissions if possible. Well, I have no trouble being inspired by trees (if you hadn't noticed) so here is a piece of my calligraphy inspired by pine trees and the words of George Seferis.

I know a pine tree that leans over near a sea. At midday it bestows upon the tired body a shade measured like our life, and in the evening the wind blowing through its needles begins a curious song as though of the souls that made an end of death, just at the moment when they begin to become skin & lips again. One night I stayed awake all night under this tree. At dawn I was brand new as though I had been freshly quarried. 

George Seferis- Greek poet, essayist & diplomat, 1963 Nobel Prize for Literature  winner.


I have written in more detail about this piece of work & my process over at Suzi's Scribbles