I remember we visited the Fortingell Yew. For some reason I don’t have a picture of it but it was many years ago now so I’d like to go back. It’s possible I couldn’t frame it properly, or that they didn’t come out well. It was a pretty grey day if I remember correctly. Or maybe it’s because I didn’t want to take any pictures. There wasn’t anyone else there, which is probably not the case now.
How many trees in the world are held prisoner, especially significant ones? Why the iron bars and prison walls? Ok, it’s an old church but still, it has iron bars surrounding it. These are not support structures, or even helpful. Then I read recently that a few years ago it produced berries. Amazing. The tree had changed sex. It is now female. How very modern. It happened in 2015, ahead of its time even, but then if it is 6000 years old it’s seen some shit come and go. So what did we humans do to our ancient prisoner? We chopped off its branches and kept it preserved somewhere to keep it safe. How very natural. What humanity. What fucking audacity. Who do we think we are?