William Wordsworth writes on the "Yew Trees"
Yew-Trees

There is a Yew-tree, pride of Lorton Vale,
Which to this day stands single, in the midst
Of its own darkness, as it stood of yore:
Not loathe to furnish weapons for the Bands
Of Umfraville or Percy ere they marched
To Scotland's heaths; or those that crossed the sea
And drew their sounding bows at Azincour,
Perhaps at earlier Crecy, or Poictiers.
Of vast circumference and gloom profound
This solitary Tree! -a living thing
Produced too slowly ever to decay;
Of form and aspect too magnificent
To be destroyed. But worthier still of note
Are those fraternal Four of Borrowdale,
Joined in one solemn and capacious grove;
Huge trunks! -and each particular trunk a growth
Of intertwisted fibres serpentine
Up-coiling, and inveteratley convolved, -
Nor uninformed with Fantasy, and looks
That threaten the profane; -a pillared shade,
Upon whose grassless floor of red-brown hue,
By sheddings from the pining umbrage tinged
Perennially -beneath whose sable roof
Of boughs, as if for festal purpose decked
With unrejoicing berries -ghostly Shapes
May meet at noontide: Fear and trembling Hope,
Silence and Foresight, Death the Skeleton
And Time the Shadow; there to celebrate,
As in a natural temple scattered o'er
With altars undisturbed of mossy stone,
United worship; or in mute repose
To lie, and listen to the mountain flood
Murmuring from Glaramara's inmost caves.

Yew Trees and How they Live.

The tree that links us closest to the mysteries of our ancient past is the yew. This tree combines an incredible life span, a tolerance for harsh conditions and poisonous foliage and this has lead to its being popularly considered a symbol of both death and immortality through the ages.

These trees have been known to be dated upwards of 5000 years!

I have one question about the Banjo, I have a 5 string with a sinthetic head and a tenor with a skin head, does the skin hesd need oiled every now and again, the same as my Bodrhan, the Celtic goat skin drum.

I suspect so...only, I believe it would also alter the tone...so be careful to use only a very small amount...I know that all types of skins, including leather, need some kind of treatment for longevity. Whereas, plastic (mylar) heads are very low maintenance...

Please stay in touch...Mickey


Regards,

Stuart.

PS.
We may be getting old, but we have the music.

Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 09:27:16 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Yew Trees


Hi Mickey,

The Yew Tree, in British folk lore, is a sign of power, protection and longevity, many of the older churches in the UK always had a Yew Tree in the church yard, I think this tradition stemmed back to before Christian times, to the pagans who were worshipers of Nature Spirits. >From the 12th century until the advent of firearms, English troops were experts with the English longbow, made of Yew and in the thirteenth century, some 7 years after William Wallace had been hung drawn and quartered, Robert the Bruce of Scotland, was so impressed by the English Longbowmwen, that after he defeated the English Crown at Bannock Burn (just 2 miles south of Stirling), he was crowned King of Scotland and he ordered that Yew Trees be planted on one of the islands of Loch Lomond, 40 miles west of Bannock Burn, for the purpose of making longbows to defend Scotland, after he was crowned King he brought about the Declaration of Arbroath, declaring Scotland as an independent Nation in its own right. The Declaration of Arbroath was the foundation for the declaration of Independence of America from British rule some 400 years later.

Some 400 years after Bannock Burn, Robert Burns wrote the poem "Scot's Wha Hae" ( Scottís Who Have) Burns wondered what the Bruce had said to his 6000 men to get them to fight the English army, who were an army of 20000 English trained troops, at Bannock Burn, and Burns came up with the poem Scot's Wha Hae.

There are Millions of people all over the world who on one night every year recite or sing the most famous Burns poem of them all and most of them don't know who the auther was, this is the celebration of New Year, and they sing "Auld Langs Ayne".

I hope you donít mind me sending you an attachment, it is a photograph of my old deer hound Blue, who I had to leave in Scotland because of his age, it has some prose on it, which I wrote about the Deerhound breed, it is simply titled "Legend of the Deerhound". After I got out of the mainstream music business in the mid 80's I went back to my trade as Deer Stalker, which refreshed my energy, by getting back to nature, in the isolation of the NW Highlands of Scotland before coming here in January 2002, in June 2002 I met a guy who played Native American Flute, "Mark Thunderwolf" this guys music was so good that I offered to help him get known, I have had his music played on Scottish Radio as well as Radio Stations throughout the UK, Europe and Canada I have nominated him for the Native American Music Awards both last year and this year, I do not want to get into the music business in a big way because as you know it is so time consuming, Mark was just an exception, Mark told me about the Native American way of life and their beliefs and I was surprised at how similar it was to the Scottish/Celtic way of life in the past and how they never exploited the Earth as they were part of Nature and not above it, this took me back to the way I used to think in the 60's/70's before I lost touch with this way of thinking through being so busy in the music business, so much so that I wrote the following prose, if I were someone of notoriety I would publish this prose to get people to think about what they are doing to this earth, but as I am not and don't intend to be, I write these things for my own enjoyment and to pass on to people I regard as likeminded, my prose may not be very good, but I enjoy doing it on a non commercial basis and I do take out copyright to anything I do to safeguard myself and my work, I hope you like it, it is called:

                                    
Buffalo Sky 

I write down this warning,

In free flowing ink,

A message from Great Spirit,

And others,

Extinct.

We are raping this planet,

Our own Mother Earth,

For profit and greed,

Is that all she is worth.

We destroy the wildlife,

Which can never return,

We cut down the forest,

We pillage and burn.

Against mans destruction,

All creatures are weak,

The Wolf the Buffalo,

The bird with hooked beak.

Our brotherís and sisterís,

"The wildlife",

We slay.

Now hide in safe places,

Till the end of the day.

They move round at night,

Just to stay alive,

what have they,

The will to survive.

These creatures that travel,

By the light of the moon,

From mid July,

All the way through June.

You may see them still,

If you have the eye,

Our brotherís and sisterís,

In the Buffalo Sky.

Auther: Stuart A Garratt 

Copyright ©, July, 2002. S.A.Garratt, Trance-Media2000.

Some day I may publish these, I apologise for this e-mail being so long Mickey and hope you can open the attachment, and can read it.

Like a bird on the wire, like a drunk in some midnight quior, I have tried in my way to be free.

All the best,
Stuart

Date: Sun, 12 Sep 2004 09:47:57 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Folk of the Wood

There are many of us who live in the concrete jungle and urban sprawl of city's and towns, there are many of us who live in rural townships and villages or in rural solitude, there are many in prisons all over the world who are there because they are victims of the time's, we enjoy accoustic music, whether it is played on Fiddle, Banjo, Native American Flute or the Panpipes of the Andes, we are the "Folk of the Wood"

Stuart.