Scarlet Oak Leaf Ball

Scarlet Oak Leaf Ball, originally uploaded by escher (waiting no longer).

I’ve been making this for several days, mostly because it has taken me time to locate enough trees to be able to find enough leaves. Many of them had been ravaged by insects and I could only reach a few of the lower branches so I had to find six different trees before I had enough leaves that were intact enough to use. I cannot tell you the exact variety of each tree but I think the leaves are a mixture of scarlet, red and pin oaks and they were several miles apart. The leaves are mostly quite large (larger than your hand), and none of the trees are native to Britain, although they are often grown here, so I am not too familiar with them. The photos were taken beneath one of the trees from which I gathered the leaves.

Whilst out gathering them I have received dozens of strange looks. I think people automatically assume you are up to no good if they cannot work out what you are doing. We live in such a distrusting society.

Yesterday’s sunshine didn’t last too long and today is again grey and drizzly. I took a walk around my usual haunts to see what the trees were doing and I was surprised to find that the trees from which I gathered the leaves to make this were already awash with colour. Despite originally calling that sculpture Sycamore Square I don’t think they are sycamore and I have not managed to correctly identify them. As I have become more interested in trees over the last few months I have realised my identifications are often wrong and I have a great deal more to learn. But I am guaranteed that the learning process will be very interesting indeed.