Sherwood Forest

So today it was off to Sherwood Forest. I've been reading the stories (Pyle's version is the best!!) in the weeks before I arrived but still I was not prepared. The oak trees here look like something out of Dr. Suess's dreams. Their twisty limbs, massive trunks, and widely spread branches give the illusion of ancient living beings. The largest of these trees are 800+ years old, and many are in the 300-500 year range. The power of these trees up close causes me see how the medieval mindset would believe in the Green Man.

I broke off from the group so I could experience the forest with as little human interaction as possible, hoping to run across the Merry Men, for I was hungry for a feast, of the soul if not the body. The trails leading off into the forest were very picturesque and reminded me of an old PBS painting show the girls and I used to watch. The artist would paint a lovely landscape and at the very end of the show would always add a "happy little road." I love these little roads because there is always a hint of something delightful just around the bend ahead.

Around one of these bends I came upon these ancient dead oaks and felt a sense of the sublime. They looked like monuments set there by God to remind mankind of his majesty, sovereignty, and his very name, "The Ancient of Days"

I was reminded of Job 12:12 "with the ancient is wisdom, and in lenght of days is understanding" and Psalm 22:28 "Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set."

These old oaks are monuments to God and to the people who have gone here before me, stretching back almost a thousand years.

I've been unable to resist taking many pictures of flowers, and there were such a small variety of flowers in Sherwood that I was a little disappointed. The Robin Hood stories often talked (incessantly) about the Merry Men strolling along in forest where the birds are singing and the "hedgerows are green and flowers bedeck the meadows, daisies pied and yellow cuckoo buds and fair primroses all along the briary hedges..." Instead, there were few flowers with the exception of a striking field of purple foxglove.

I started looking lower to the ground, even though it was hard to get my eyes off those big oaks towering into the blue sky. I came across this gem and as I knelt to the ground to take the picture, the class discussions on Lord Bryon's poetry came to mind and I laughed out loud! Bryron was such a whiny brat, wasn't he? For a Romantic (with a capital "R") this picture would cause many a sigh. It may look like just a pretty little weed to you, but notice that it is growing out of a decayed stump of an ancient tree. Even though the flower is pretty, it is the bloom of a stinging nettle, for even beauty must hurt for it to be authentic. So from decay is coming forth beauty, but when beauty is plucked it will cause pain. sigh...how Byronic!

So I continued on this path as far as it would take me until I came to the dreaded man-made fence that surrounds the parkland of Sherwood Forest. I had been told t0 stay within the fence to avoid wandering into the military shooting range, a sort of juxtaposition of the Robin Hood tales that warned the Sheriff to stay out of the forest! I was saddened by the fence at first, and yet as I pondered on it, I realized that the fence posts were made of the wood of the forests. As i shot this Modern image, I saw the single bare tree standing sentinel next to the shorter, stripped down wooden fence post, and I realized that these stories of Robin Hood were only made possible because of fences. The forest law is still in effect today...don't pick the flowers, don't climb the trees, don't drive your car through the forest. The government is now the keeper of the forest and it is the common people who, instead of poaching the deerand removing it from the forest, destroy the forest by leaving the remains of their food and drink behind them. So, the fence is a good thing and as the trees continue to grow, they will overtake the fence and reintegrate the posts into nature.

After all this deep thinking, it was time to head back to the gift shop and museum to meet up with the group. Walking through the exhibits I saw that the focus was all about the child-like fun and wonder of the Robin Hood stories. While there was some interesting displays at grown-up level, underneath each one was a child's eye view of the stories. The exhibits reminded me very much of the forest/tree house in the Cincinnati Children's Museum. The gift shop was 90% devoted to toys, swords, costumes,and the inevitable Robin Hood erasers and rulers. The gift shop certainly knew who their target demographic was, as was proven when a group of high school students came through and almost bought out the place. I must admit, I couldn't resist either! I've never lost my sense of play...