The William Blake oak being planted on Peckham Rye

There's more. Hartley didn't just head down to the garden centre and pick out any old tree: rather, he went off and found one that was about to fall victim to coastal erosion. Take a look at his blog for a heartwarming photo-story of the rescue operation, complete with handy blue arrows and dramatic captions ("the eroding margins of England"; "Doomed oak").



William Blake oak being planted on Peckham Rye


Here's a cheering thing, passed on to me by the excellent Ben Myers. The latest work from an artist by the name of John Hartley is an oak sapling on Peckham Rye, planted this weekend in honour of William Blake, who claimed to have seen an oak "filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars" when he visited the place at the age of nine.

The whole thing was undertaken with the support of the Blake Society and the Forestry Commission; the tree was planted on Sunday by Linda Foster of Peckham Library; and another local, Carl Mesner Lyons, took copious pictures of the event, which you can look at here. All in all, a good day's work.