Trees are the biggest, oldest, living things on earth and are a very precious part of our environment. They are mentioned many times in the Bible and were an important part of creation. In Genesis 2 we read that trees were made both for food and for artistic appreciation as well as for a symbolic representation of eternal life and the choice between good and evil. Jesus sometimes used trees as symbols in His parables and they are also a reminder of His birth in a wooden manger, his pre-ministry life as a carpenter and His death on a wooden cross. The aim of this series of “Walk with the Creator” was to explore the trees in Headington Hill Park, Oxford, and to make a study of one tree in four seasons of the year. The naturalists amongst us were looking at the biology and ecology of the tree, whilst the artists had a chance to draw, paint or take photographs. There will also be an opportunity to reflect and draw parallels with the seasons in our own spiritual journeys. We then returned to St Clement's, Oxford for refreshments and spent the rest of the morning putting together a scrapbook of thoughts, pictures, bark rubbings, leaf prints, etc. This walk series was completed on 20th January 2005, and here we have archived the four reports on the walks:

Thursday 1st July 2004- The second of the series of Walk with the Creator walks. Fouteen of us (much augmented by the California Hodsons!) met at St Clement's, Oxford, in the morning, and Caroline Steel guided us around Headington Hill Park. There were lots of changes since we last went in April, and already some trees were showing signs of autumn colour. Pam Hodson specialised in Bark Rubbing. We gathered back in the church for tea and cakes, where we were joined by the Rector, Bruce Gillingham.

Thursday October 14th 2004- Nine people gathered at St Clements Church on for the latest walk in the series, “Exploring trees in four seasons”. The rain mercifully stopped as we entered Headington Hill Park and our task for the morning was to observe the trees in all their autumn colours and to ponder upon the Horse Chestnut Tree and its well known fruit, the conker. Clare provided some fascinating information on conkers, such as when the game of conkers started and how to cheat by soaking them in vinegar (you're seemingly allowed to use last season's conkers though, which will have hardened up nicely!). Caroline explained to us that in the Bible a fruit bearing tree is a symbol of blessing and wholeness, and then showed us two neighbouring Horse Chestnut trees, one healthy and one almost dead. She said that the trees reminded her of the two paths of obedience and disobedience that God set before the Israelites. They had been warned over and over against worshipping idols. So in Leviticus we read that one of the rewards for obedience was a great harvest and fruitfulness. “If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my Chinese Birch

commands, I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit” (Leviticus 26:3) But one of the punishments for disobedience is unfruitfulness. Verse 20 reads, “Your strength will be spent in vain, because your soil will not yield its crops, nor will the trees of the land will yield their fruit”.

We then explored the rest of the Park and marvelled at the beauty of some of the trees, especially the `Pride of India' (also called `Golden Rain') and the red bark of the Northern China red-barked Birch (see photo). Some of the fallen leaves were taken back to the church and made into collages. We enjoyed a selection of home-made refreshments and finished the morning with a prayer for Autumn Days.

Thursday 20th January 2005- Walk with the Creator, Headington Hill Park. Six people met at Headington Hill Park for our last walk in the series, “Exploring Trees in Four Seasons”. We had three tasks for our winter walk. Firstly, to look at the variety of tree shape and form, easily seen in winter when the branches are leafless. The advantage of parkland trees is that they have space to develop their representative forms and we marvelled at the different sizes and shapes, from the stately limes and London planes to the slender birches with graceful dropping branches. We also looked for signs of early flowers and were thrilled to see the tiny red flowers of the Persian Ironwood. Our second task was to look at the Horse Chestnuts and we observed the stout winter twigs with their sticky buds. Caroline pointed out the large shield-shaped, leaf scars with a `horse-shoe' arrangement of old vein traces, like horse-shoe nails. It is likely that the name of the tree comes from this horseshoe pattern. Clare read a poem “The God of Hope” which describes the Horse Chestnut twig, followed by a verse from the Bible (Isaiah 53:4,5). Caroline shared that we too carry scars from hurts and disappointments, but that Christ died and shared in our sufferings. We also looked for the dying Horse Chestnut tree, but discovered that it had been felled, probably for safety Evergreen identification

reasons. Finally, we walked around the Park and concentrated on identifying the different evergreens. We looked at the arrangement of the conifer needles, smelt the fragrance of the needles and observed colour variations and foliage patterns. We discovered that some conifers, like the larch and swamp cypress are deciduous, and their thin, textured needles formed a dense carpet beneath the trees.