I’ve been observing Monterey Pines in my travels around west Cornwall recently. I love the way that you can’t predict the direction that any bough or branch might take during its growth. It seems to be more complicated than ‘onwards and upwards’ probably as a result of the tree having to contend with sometimes ferocious conditions like 100mph winds that are not unknown here.  Clearly the contorted shape of these majestic pines is a product of the environment it inhabits.  I can’t help but see them paralleling the shapes that contemporary dancers might perform and the dynamic and expressive shapes they sometimes get their bodies to adopt.