Country Mouse

Ashes to ashes

IN the next few weeks, the horseshoe buds of the ash tree will open into purple, coral-like flowers. It’s one of the last trees to break into leaf. Look closely this year, for you may not see this happen many more times. When I was a boy, Britain lost its elms to disease. I didn’t notice. Now, as a father, I fret as I see great stands of ash killed by a different disease —about 80% of ash trees in the UK are expected to die from ash dieback. I want everyone to notice and to remember, to take pictures of favourite trees, paint them or sit under their fanning leaves.

The ash tree was of great importance in Norse mythology: ‘It was the greatest of all trees and its branches spread all over the world.’ Next to where Rachel and I are renovating our new house, Gilbert White recorded it in his lifetime as a healing tree for children, who were passed naked through split saplings that were then bound back together to cure them. The wood has been used for centuries to make tool handles and farm implements and, famously, makes great firewood. There’s a lot of that available today.

Once, there were about 200 million ash trees in Britain. Let’s not forget them.