St Peters RC Church Hamilton

A feature of winter is bold structure.

The deciduous trees without any leaves,

Stand boldly naked and expressive.

No longer do they obscure a view,

But allow you to peer through the tangle of branches,

To increase the sense of discovery, an adventure!

Some trees, notably the silver birches,

Multi-stemmed with a smooth, ghostly white trunk

Even seem to be tactile, tempting us to touch the bark.

These skeletons, the bare bones of winter

Add interest for months, because of their structure.

There is a stark simplicity revealing an individual beauty,

No or little colour except for the evergreen

And maybe some bark with a patterned texture,

The beauty is in the tree species’ identity,

Both its overall outline always distinctive,

And the ascending tangle of branches and twigs.

There is a wealth of forms to a tree’s natural shape,

Spreading out horizontally some wider than others,

All ascending or weeping in rounded, conical or columnal form.

Our Creator is the Lord of much variety!

The weeping forms may be dainty as they sweep the ground,

And great interest does an array of twigs offer us,

Whether dense and bushy, or light and airy.

If fan shaped by carefully pruning these trees,

This is a type of artistry, particularly eye catching when wintery,

Especially if set against a free standing frame

For then the trained outline gifts a sense of filigree.

If formality is a choice, then this is a ready candidate!

Some plants, the cotoneaster for example, boast their own symmetry,

No pruning needed here, as its neat herring bone branches

Spray out from this hardiest, ground covering shrub.

In winter an added joy are the sealing wax scarlet berries,

Ripe for picking and plucking by hungry bird foragers.

Alternatively, right at the other end of the scale

Stems of ‘Contorta’ are completely higgledy-piggledy!

When they display their catkins, even these have a kick!

Concurrently the rounded mound of witch hazels

Swell up velvety buds increasingly day by day,

Actually changing the silhouette of the stems,

Until eventually they burst into a glorious display

Of spidery petals in a whole array of glorious colour,

So welcome in winter, becoming lemon and gold to deep bronze and ginger!

Garden colour is ever at a premium in winter.

December, January and February, the winter months

Of splendid style in tree structure,

A grand art, all of its own genre, thanks to the Creator.

Enjoy then the beauty of tree tracery surrounding us.

Possibly before you can almost blink, it will be time

To think again of another season as foliage insists on its annual appearance.

Let us not be in too much of a hurry to let go of winter structure,

For its individual splendour is an honour to the Creator.

Lord, thank You for winter structure in all its glory of form, boldness and statuesque appearance. This is so different to the other seasons. You are indeed the Lord of all creativity and variety. We praise and thank

You! Amen.

WINTER

NATURE