2 New Trees And A Sad Ending

Wow, it's been just over a year to the day since my last post! I can honestly say my quest for seeing as many Monkey Puzzle trees as possible really took off over last summer but I will leave that story to another post very soon.

What I first need to say is that last May was when the wonderful Monkey Map project, run by the incredible Sarah Horton, came to an end. I have to be honest and say it did not surprise me that Sarah felt her work was done. I find it hard enough keeping up this blog with just my own finds but trying to keep up to date with the hundreds of sightings sent in from all the other enthusiastic 'hunters' out there, which is what the project was getting, must have been quite something else. So I'd just like to once again say a massive thank you to Sarah for not only helping me and so many others find Monkey Puzzle trees to see but for also showing me that the fact that there are others out there like me means I may not be as crazy as I thought I was! I still use her catalogue to find trees when I visit areas and hope that her wonderful database will remain for a source of locations for years to come.

With the end of the project and its cataloguing system I have decided to take this as a chance to readjust how I log my finds, especially as this will make it easier for me to keep this blog up to date. From now I will be just counting the trees I have seen and logging their location. This means that I will still keep my Map up to date but my own catalogue will be less 'accurate' relating to the trees I've seen. In practical terms this means that if I see a group of say 78 trees like Knolls Wood I will post photographs of some if not all of the trees but I will no longer be that worried about posting a picture of every tree or whether I identify each individual tree posted/counted. I have also dropped the trees yet to see category as it really is not that important, I know there are quite a few thousand trees out there I need to see so there is really no need in highlighting this fact. I will also drop the Monkey Map label as well as the front garden etc. label as they are not that essential to my quest.

So onto new trees, first off is this large tree I came across visiting Ruislip.

Ruislip Monkey Puzzle Tree No. 3

The second was spotted in Northampton. The reason for the visit was to attend the funeral of my wonderful uncle Vic. He was a very special person who provided so much laughter throughout my life that the World will not be quite the same without him. He had been suffering from terminal cancer for a while when he decided that he liked the idea of holding a wake before he died, the idea being that was he would have the chance to see, share memories and say goodbye to as many people he knew as possible. The idea was genius and everyone who went felt that it is something they would do now given the chance. This tree was just opposite the pub we held his 2nd wake after his funeral.

Northampton

So that is all for now, I will be updating the blog with my summer travels very soon.

Monkey Puzzle Trees Seen - 161