27.09.2025 Autumn beech woods no more?

 ~o~

  Saturday 27th 51F/10.6C [8.00] Rather cloudy morning and the sun hasn't broken through yet. Another sunny autumn day is forecast after lunch. Reaching 17C/62F with an easterly wind. The trees and hedges are already stirring.

 Up at 7.15 after nodding off again. I woke much earlier and kept glancing at the clock. 6.15 seemed like a reasonable time to get up. I closed my eyes again and it was suddenly an hour later.

 8.30 8.45 Time for a walk. 

 There was a sad climate story in the Danish news. Denmark's favourite tree, the beech, can't tolerate a warmer or drier climate. Beautiful beech trees dominate the landscape here. Covering 80,000 hectares of forest, woods and copses. The beech provides a unique and accessible woodland. With towering columns of grey trunks. 

 Their canopies are so dense that weeds cannot flourish beneath them. In autumn they drop their leaves. To provide a gorgeous carpet of bright orange. Which almost seems to glow in the low winter sunlight. Further protecting the ground from invasive weeds. 

 The wood burns well and is a favourite for wood stoves. It is no wonder that the beech is Denmark's national tree. It is even mentioned in the national anthem. Yet, at present rates of warming it may no longer exist in Denmark within 100 years.

 I have taken thousands of pictures of beech trees since coming to Denmark. The image above is from fifteen years ago. Where a narrow, undulating road passes though the forest from a stately home. My trike is parked on the leaf laden verge. Beneath the gorgeous canopy of autumn colour. Yet another recycled bag is hanging on the trike. Ready to receive the day's shopping. 

 This always beautiful lane often tempted me. To go the extra miles home from the village. Despite the steep hills and the noisy cobbles. Of the vast yards leading to them. Google Street View caught me climbing one of the hills on my trike. Bags of shopping dangling from the rear. That was back in 2010 too.

 Enough of the nostalgia. I'm going to ride to the next shopping village to the south east. With its charity shops. It has become a bit of a habit. Going there every Saturday. This time I shall take alternative routes. To enjoy the scenery. Rather than the fastest route with the roaring traffic. 

 10.30 Sunshine. Time to go. 

 12.40 And back again after 39km. I was fighting the wind for the first half distance. Several cyclists went past. Going the other way. The Husqvarna robot mower was playing dead beside the road today. I was finally able to read the model number. Definitely a 450X. Talking to it with empathy and sympathy had no noticeable effect. There was no visible or audible reaction. This model has a capacity of 5000m^2 and costs up to £4000 equivalent. I stopped to grocery shop when I reached the village. 

 Dinner was fried chicken, mushrooms and chips. 

 

 ~o~