walk-talk talks

walks within reach of St Albans with photos that show you exactly which way to go

This site is new - more walks and talks will be added as the site is developed.

Tree talks and walks

Would your group or organisation welcome an illustrated talk on trees?

Or a walk round the trees of interest in Clarence Park, Verulamium Park, Highfield Park or one of the churchyards?

All are light hearted, each lasts for 45 minutes but can be tailored to requirements, and the charge is £45 per talk and £3 per head for a walk.

Kate Bretherton gives the talks and leads the walks. She is not an expert but in writing up about the trees of St Albans District she has learned all sorts of things about our trees that are entertaining - and might be useful.

Also, look out for the Heritage Tree Trail during the September Heritage Open Days in St Albans.

Talks

'The Remarkable Trees of St Albans'

Loosely based on Kate's book of the same name, the talk describes and illustrates with wonderful photographs the street trees; trees in our parks, churchyards, surrounding towns, villages and the countryside; our favourite trees; trees with history; how we can help to look after trees.

'How to recognise and remember which tree is which'

We all know one or two trees, of course, but can we recognise them in winter? And what about all those others?

This talk looks at trees in a quirky way that helps us to distinguish one tree from another and go on remembering which tree is which.

'Trees and our local history'

In finding about about the trees for 'The Remarkable Trees of St Albans' Kate investigated how the trees came to be there and learned all sorts of interesting stuff about how things used to be in our District.

'What keeps trees upright'

Gravity can only support a column of water of a certain height so how is it that trees can grow so tall and still have water reach the leaves at the top of their crown? And what about those trees in clumps that look like one big tree because they each have branches only on one side: why don't they fall over? The mechanics of trees is an interesting subject that this talk tackles.

'Trees and birds'

Kate was asked by the local RSPB group to slant her talk to include something about trees and birds. She was fascinated to find how interdependent are not only birds and trees but invertebrates, birds and trees. The feedback after the talk included “fascinating”, “stimulating food for thought”, “interesting new facts” and “enjoyable delivery”, so that it seems a pity not to offer it to any other group that is interested!

'Trees of the Ver Valley'

Kate was asked by the Ver Valley Society to slant her talk to include something about trees of the Ver Valley. The talk covered the water loving trees: willows, poplars and alders in particular. Willows have very odd mating habits and poplars' xylem vessels differ from those of most of our other native trees.

To find out more or book a talk, contact Kate Bretherton in any of the ways given below:

Kate Bretherton

Flint Barn, Norrington End, Redding Lane, Redbourn, AL3 7QN

07901 945920 or 01582 791912

kate@walk-talk.co.uk