I had seen photos of the Angel Oak Tree circulating on Facebook months before I visited South Carolina. Shortly before my trip (mostly teaching and lecturing, but also a few days of vacation too!), I researched the location and found it to be located on John Island, only about 20 minutes away from my hotel in Charleston. I spent four days of vacation in Charleston, then delivered a lecture and workshop for three different guilds: 1) Cobblestone Quilters Guild in Charleston, 2) Greater Columbia Quilters Guild in Columbia, and 3) York County Quilters Guild in Rock Hill. Rock Hill is very close to Charlotte, NC, so that is where I flew home from on Wednesday night.
Depending on your source, some say the tree is as old as 1400 years. Some say it is as young as 400 years. Whatever you believe, it is an OLD tree and it is magnificent! The branches reach for forever, and many of them are anchored with supports. It is a great place to study light and shadow, that is for sure!
I will have several more posts coming about South Carolina, the sights I saw, the people I met and the classes I taught. Oh, and by the way, two of the guilds requested my Tree Collage workshop. No wonder. I saw many inspirational trees in South Carolina.
What a wonderful tree! It brought back memories of visiting Sherwood Forest in the UK (1992) where we saw the Major Oak (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_Oak), which is believed to be somewhere between 800 and 1000 years old. Both are natural wonders!
ReplyDeleteI have always wanted to visit Sherwood Forest Margaret. I thought our old oak tree in the Ottawa Arboretum was amazing (at more than 100 years old), but these trees are over-the-top amazing!
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