Headbangers Challenge--Trees

I chose this tree to edit to fit my header in response to the headbanger theme presented by Tom. There are only four of us Headbangers at the present time. We would love for you to join us as our optimum number is six. We post a new header according to a theme each week, and vote as to our favorite interpretation of the theme.
The question given us with the tree(s) theme was What kind is it and why did you choose it?

My answer to the first question is, I don't know. And I can't run out and check it out because this tree is in Yorkshire, in the Northumberland National Park, along the route of Hadrian's Wall.

And I'm not.


We visited the UK two years ago this summer, starting with a couple of days in Edinburgh, then a week hiking in the Scottish Highlands. When we left Scotland and headed south into England, we hiked along a portion of Hadrian's Wall.

The wall was ordered built by Roman Emperor Hadrian  in  AD 122  to mark the northern extreme of the Empire. It was a defense against those crazies from Scotland (my husbands ancestors?)




Ruins of the wall and some of the fortifications along it stretch from west to east from Carlisle to near Newbury on Tyne. You can visit by bus, or hike the entire thing--almost 90 miles (from memory, and coincidentally about the same distance as the Wonderland Trail which circles Mt. Rainier. Research shows the wall is slightly shorter.) We took the bus to one stop and hiked to Housesteads--one of the forts--to get the bus back to our train.

The wall goes through Yorkshire farmland, life being lived, in the midst of history.

As we traveled along the wall we came upon this tree:

No one said the hike was level.

This tree, I think maybe it is an oak, stands next to one of the wells from the original settlements of the area. 

I almost went back. Heights (as much hiking as I do in the mountains--you may find it hard to believe) give me pause. I am glad that Himself was not the photographer or you would likely be treated to the method of my descent instead of his.

So why did I choose this tree for my header despite all the lovely trees in our arboretum and those in our Northwest forests, or the forests we visited in Alaska or Siberia? I guess the answer to that one is also "I don't know."

It is historical. It is a reminder of a fun time before the current medical stresses.

And I just love the way this picture came out.