Alders

The room of the Alders

I loved to take the cows to graze along the stream where the alder trees grow, there was so much fun to have. I knew how to light a fire at seven years old but also find those places my parents forbade me venture into. I used to play with children from the lowlands who came up for their holidays – we were all equally wild.

The alder is broadleaved, at lower altitudes it grows huge and covers water courses. Up here it stays small, little more than a bush. If there’s a right and wrong way about everything – a state of mind, certain days, what we wear, then the alder represents the wrong way, it’s the hidden part, it’s the boar’s nest, the ideal den.