Patterns of Ivy

Although Ivy can cause problems to the trees it entwines, there is something romantic about it, in a sort of Pre-Raphaelite way. One of my early memories is of watching a Buzzard's nest in an ivy-covered Oak tree in Herefordshire.

At the beginning of this week I spent a few days in a small village near Bath. There I was fascinated not by the romanticism but by the architectural quality of the tracery-like patterns formed by the Ivy on this tree:




Whereas the ivy on this next tree contributed to a totally English romantic May image: