Look at the road behind you

[sovay]

Finally, the day is clear enough for me to get a good spring picture of the Jefferson elm on our street. I'm not sure how old it is, except not very. Per A Canterbury Tale (1944): "You can't hurry an elm."



My niece wanted to know what was so special about it, so I wound up explaining Dutch elm disease and the importance of resistant trees, like the survivor on the National Mall from which this sapling was cultivated. The city seems to have accepted us adopting it under the name of Bella Ptelea. That's pte-re-wa in Linear B.

Comments

[cmcmck]

All the wonderful elms around Canterbury, including in the village of Wickhambreaux where parts of the film were made, that I knew as an undergrad all went during that outbreak.

'Epitaph for the Elm' is a photographic book I picked up at the time and I still feel there's a poem there somewhere.

There are still a few skeletal elms in the landscape here in Shropshire.

[sovay]

'Epitaph for the Elm' is a photographic book I picked up at the time and I still feel there's a poem there somewhere.

I think you should write it. Maybe for Canterbury's elms. I have hardly ever seen one in the wild.

[ashlyme]

I've got "Epitaph for the Elm" too! I found it among a few books for sale (a few pence towards charity) at a one-day musical festival (oddly enough, at the pub that The Orion Arms is based on).

Edit: please do write that poem.

[cmcmck]

I've just essayed! :o)