Today, I was dragged out kicking and screaming to view a collection of trees. A collection of trees, you ask. That’s like a forest, isn’t it? Well, sort of, but not quite and it’s not every collection of trees where you have to pay £9 to get in. Turns out it was a bargain.
Westonbirt Arboretum stands in or near (I am not sure which) Tetbury which, I am sure you know, is where a very famous person lives. Yes, Jet Black, the drummer with the Stranglers. I think the heir to the throne lives there too but to be fair he never played on Golden Brown or Peaches, did he, so he doesn’t count.
Anyway, Westonbirt. We parked the car on a beautiful autumn morning, along with several thousand other people. “Is there some special event going on?” asked an awfully posh lady behind us. “Well, yes,” I stage-whispered to myself. “It’s autumn. People have come to look at the leaves.” And so they had and soon I could see why.
The Arboretum has a website which informs me that there are 15,000 labelled trees at Westonbirt and 2,500 different varieties of trees. I never knew there were that many different varieties because, frankly, many of them look the same to me. If I was asked to guess how many different types of trees there were, I’d have said 10 or 15, tops. I was only slightly out.
I did not think walking along slightly muddy paths between magnificent collections of trees could be so interesting and so uplifting, but it was. They say that trees provide the oxygen for the planet and I could almost feel my lungs opening up to inhale some of it. My asthma, usually a minor irritation on a cold day, did not appear at all. Walking and breathing suddenly seemed to be a pleasurable experience.
We had probably picked the busiest day of the year judging from the queues at the burger and coffee franchises, not to mention the car park, but there is so much space you never feel boxed in. I simply cannot do justice to the colours on display or the sheer feelings of awe as you climb beneath the giant cedars and the treetop walkway is a wonder to behold.
Granted, my excellent Nailsworth burger with horseradish made the day even more worthwhile, but to my astonishment I could not speak any more highly of the place.
Lessons for next time? Wear some gloves, wear some thicker socks in my wellies, come on a weekday. But no real complaints. I loved it.
