Last March, when I began posting, my aim was simple: to learn, through discipline, more about our Forest. I wanted to chronicle both my encounters and local phenology. To witness history as it unfolded in layers: human, plant, animal, fungal, arboreal and geographical, and to see how those strands interwove.
I set myself a goal of a post a day. Today is my 365th, a month ahead of schedule. Some have been better written, more informative, more interesting than others, but I hope that as the year has passed quality has improved. Perhaps it is more accurate to say that I have become a better version of myself, altered a little by my relationship with the Forest. That, surely, is how it should be.
Regular readers will know that I have already written about two bouquets jubilaires, noted by René Stevens in his 1917 Carte de la Forêt de Soignes. These were plantings from 1905, marking seventy-five years of the Belgian state, which, after all, predates present-day Germany and Italy.
On the map I found another, and then things began to align. It stands precisely where the 1905 anniversary stone lies, along the Grasdellepad, an area already rich in commemorative stones and trees.
This jubilee bouquet of Douglas fir would not have spoken of rustic nostalgia. It would have proclaimed growth and confidence. A statement that Belgium was no mere buffer between powers, but a modern nation with its own direction. Here to stay.
