Footprint of trees past

Every so often there is an outpouring of bracket fungus in St Mary’s churchyard. It’s following the roots of the massive copper beech that used to stand here.

That was a glorious tree, and two seedlings grown from it are either side of the gap where the parent tree stood. The fungus is like an echo, a memorial to the tree that was, and the life it still supports many years after the tree was cut down.