The lonely oak is the inspiration behind my creativity and my online name; this is the oak in mistletoeoak. I can recall from my Nan’s kitchen seeing the tree and 30 years later, I still see the tree on my daily walk, still surviving. My blog and Instagram share regular images that I capture of the tree. It is like a marker of strength; storms, snow, earthquakes even, it remains. As I write this it’s May, the oak is shrouded in bright yellow rapeseed, inaccessible but visible for miles around. So why this image? As you can see it was harvest, the yellow combine came along and I and the children watched and waved and the tractor driver collecting the corn beeped the horn. But more than this, this is the special time where there is no crop, you can access the tree. Touch it, feel the bark, notice the bugs, find oakgalls, collect leaves and as you sit underneath, you notice the animal tracks in the field. Is it a badger or a fox who has worn a well trod path straight to the tree? And