A slope where trees grow

Published on by Laura Bloomsbury

It’s frequently necessary to pare my digital photo collection, especially those I keep in Adobe’s Lightroom, simply because of storage space and a reluctance to keep paying for more. And as I review them all yet again this month, delving back into the older ones I know that this is one photo that cannot be deleted. It was taken on 17th March 2016 after a short train trip out of London To Tring and a walk up into an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty set within the Chiltern hills.

The name Tring is believed to derive from the Old English Tredunga or Trehangr, ‘Tre’ meaning ‘tree’ and the suffix ‘ing’ implying ‘a slope where trees grow’. Tring is in the county of Hertfordshire and linked to London by the Roman road of Akeman Street, by the modern A41 road, by the Grand Union Canal and by the West Coast Main Line to London Euston. Settlements in Tring date back to prehistoric times and it was mentioned in the Domesday Book; the town received its market charter in 1315.

This walk towards the Ashridge Estate and the Ivinghoe Beacon was a fairly regular trip for Martin and I and my many recollections are of lanes filled with cow parsley, or vast bluebells woods, or places we would sit and picnic in midsummer looking down over the valley.

The photo is looking back across the Ashridge golf course before we entered Sallow Copse on our way up to the Ivinghoe beacon. It is not the most photogenic image but this high up in early Spring on a well drained chalk escarpment the close-cropped grass is far from verdant. I like the scattering of trees though and how the path takes the eye into the distance, a pathway imprinted with our many footsteps, side by side. In other words it contains as many memories as blades of grass.

For the Lens Artists Photo Challenge: Only One Picture

16 thoughts on “A slope where trees grow”

  1. Dear Laura – I think you know I am happy to see you here. I am sorry, but I did not know you are now alone on this journey of life. Your beautiful choice of picture and writing go well together, just like when you two walked this path. Thank you for joining in.

  2. I can understand why you wouldn’t want to delete this photo, so many wonderful memories. Incidentally Tre in the Cornish language means a settlement or homestead.

  4. A beautiful image and a more beautiful memory Laura. So sorry for your loss. In the end it’s the little things we remember – a lovely day through a serene place with a loving partner….what could be better stored in our memories than that. Thanks so much for sharing your heart for the week’s challenge . As an aside, I agree with your thinking on a repeat for the challenge.

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