Oars, early cars, ladders, druids and magical properties: Let me introduce you to one of my favourite trees: an enormous and very old, knobbly - and I think, wise - ash tree. Ash trees are as beautiful as they're useful, yet also magical and mysterious. Their wood is so shock absorbent and resillient, ash trees were used for axe and hammer handles, oars, hockey sticks, early cars and the best ladders.
There are many ash-related stories in folklore: they're known as the 'tree of life'. New born babies were once given a teaspoon of ash sap. Other weak-limbed children were passed through a cleft in an ash tree to cure them. On Ash Wednesday children tooka twig of ash to school (not sure what they did with it - simpler times!).
The dense wood makes for excellent fuel, as it can also be burnt when still green (if you can really bare to burn this beautiful being): ash' latin species name is Fraxinus meaning firelight.
You'll see ash trees through-out the Yorkshire Dales (sadly some have become victims to ash dieback disease), as they love limestone.
I think 'my' ash tree is at least 180 years old and every spring I nervously wait for new leaves to appear, reassurance that it hasn't succumbed to ash dieback disease. This year it delighted me, verdant and strong. It cast off the odd small branch but continued to grow and stretch its boughs. Now its leaves have fallen and I can go back to admiring its gnarled, old silhouette.
An old weather-forecasting adage goes: "Oak before Ash, we're in for a splash. Ash before Oak, we're in for a soak". Thanks to climate change though the oak tends to leaf before the ash: oak trees apparently relies on warmth, and the ash on light.
We really need trees in our lives. We need them because they're up-lifting and beautiful. We need them because they help combat climate change by removing excess CO2 from the atmosphere. We need them because they help stop soil erosion and reduce flooding. There's an easy way to help plant trees in the Yorkshire Dales, and name them after loved ones if you wish - Yorkshire Dales Millennium Trust have so far planted over 1.4 million trees in the Dales. Take a look at their website to see how you can plant a tree as a gift or in memory of some-one, or just because you want to talk to a tree.
Where's your favourite tree?