Oak Tree

This is an oak tree growing at the edge of the forest. Not that old yet - but already very tall and wide.

More than would fit on one photo. So I made a video of it. You can hear a cuckoo in the video too. Or maybe it was a dove??

Some basic information on oak trees can be found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oak

At the area where I filmed this one above are more of them - seemingly growing in a row as if planted to mark the edge of a territory. 

As child I had lived across a villa with a garden full of oak trees. From the grandmother of my friend and school mate there I heard the story of how they used the oak acorns to make coffee after WW2.

And we 2 girls, being around 8 years old then and not yet allowed to drink real coffee, had nothing better to do that afternoon as to run outside and pick up all the acorns we could find. Each took a batch of them home. 

It took a few weeks to dry them. I then mashed mine and poured hot water over them, hoping to get coffee. It tasted awful. Only years later I found out that I should have roasted the dried acorns as you roast the coffee beans too. My friend had thrown the acorns away before they even had been fully dried. 

My mother, when she found out about the fake coffee making experiment, was very upset - telling me that to do this is very dangerous to my health as the acorns are poisonous. Well, as it hadn't tasted well I didn't repeat that experiment. But I did try to make tea and soups out of leaves I found in our garden: walnut and "Essigbaum"; without much success. 

Three years later we moved overseas for five years. That was the end to those kind of experiments.