There are some mighty pines in and around the grounds of the music school. For example the one in the background of Thursday's photo must be a couple of hundred feet tall. It can be seen on the horizon from various viewpoints for miles around. 

 Actually it's in someone's front garden rather than the school grounds. The general area is known as Pinehill. I suspect most were planted when the house stood alone on top of the hill with fields sloping up to it. As mentioned in a previous entry it was commissioned by the Quaker botanist/pharmacist William Ransome who farmed the surrounding area. I imagine he instigated the planting of the numerous pines?

 Needless to say there is a considerable fall of needles and cones particularly in windy weather as recently. As with leaves they can lie where they fall on the beds but we sweep the tarmac and add them to the compost heaps. 

 In America 'pine straw mulch' is widely used as a compostable organic matter. They have a lot of it to compost I suppose. I used to have the idea that it might serve as an ericaceous compost since pine needles are somewhat acidic. Apparently it makes no difference to the soil PH.

 Curious fact. It's said that there are more giant redwoods planted in the UK than growing native in California: around half a million here as opposed to about 80,000 in the 'Redwood State'. Can that be true?