Posted: 18/02/2015 at 12:35
Post brought me a lovely surprise but i have to tell you the prequel first. Two years ago on a visit to Oxford Univ. Botanic garden my friend took a picture of me with the group under the famous very old Black Pine which predated the Bot, Garden itself which is the oldest in the country. The guide told us Tolkien and TS Eliot had sat under the tree writing and I remember thinking how I would like to sit under it and write a poem. I am the one in the green jacket with hood.
My friend recently attended a do at his old college and sent me a pic of it now. Some musicians had been playing under it and heard an ominous crack which resulted in two large boughs falling, so it had to be felled. He tells me there are plans to keep the stump and put an explanatory plaque on it.
Today in the post I received a cone from it and his Petits Fours in their pretty pink butterfly box. See pic.
I feel sure I can get some seeds from the cone and leave a Black Pine for future occupants of my garden.