Others around it are turning their coats, and in some cases have lost them to the winds. But the good old pedunculate oak stands green as it was a month ago. Well, here and there a slight touch of brown at the end of a leaf, but the over all effect is of green. And that is a mighty lot of green, with some of the branches, thick as many tree trunks, reaching out 60 feet. Not counting the fact that here and there it and its fellows take an odd right angled turn, either up or down, and then continue their course south or east or whatever.
The lowest branch of all might have been the longest, but it had to be taken off so that some young pony riders around the paddock might be spared decapitation, or at least concussion. Offspring of this tree, growing some 50 miles away and being a mere 20 years old and near a river, have still a shiny green gloss and are without a taint of brown.
Charles Nelson in Trees Of Ireland refers to the "King Oak" in Charleville Estate, Tullamore, Co Offaly. It is shown in silhouette in Wendy Walsh's lovely illustrations, with four of its branches reaching out parallel to the ground and touching it. Nelson says it may be as much as 900 years old, but only ring counting will tell. It may be a fanciful estimate, he says, but if it were so, that would make it "a worthy candidate for the oldest living plant in Ireland". He gives to or 11 "Recorded Trees" and a tour round the oaks would make a fine pilgrimage.
The first oak mentioned above gave few acorns this year. The flowers came very late. But those acorns that were not taken off by birds or badgers, or even humans, were filled to the skin, almost bursting. Are there many oaks in Nepal - you know, the place the Gurkha come from? All mountains, you might have thought.
Anyway, tomorrow the Society of Irish Foresters is holding the inaugural Sean MacBride Memorial Forestry Lecture and the subject is "A Glimpse of Forestry in Nepal". It's by Bill Stanley, of the Research Branch of Coillte. He worked for over a year in Nepal on a community forestry programme, in an isolated region of Northwest Nepal where forestry is an essential element of the life of the small land holdings. A top priority was to train people in forest protection and soil conservation. At 8 pm in 24 Agricultural Building, University College, Dublin. Free, all welcome.
(Why Sean MacBride? Because he was a lifelong friend of afforestation and was mainly behind the 1948 Inter Party Government's increased planting policy, says the announcement.)