On a fine, bright morning last Friday, just like so many other fine, bright mornings, Gary Pickles took a walk.
Mr. Pickles, a ranger who works at Northumberland National Park in England, just south of the Scottish border, was inspecting a route that wends past Hadrian’s Wall, constructed by the Roman Army in the second century A.D.
He walked past the cleft where the Sycamore Gap tree had famously jutted out into the landscape before it was illegally cut down last year, and he bent down to its stump.
Astonishingly, improbably, there were eight shoots where the tree once stood.
“It was like when you see an old friend,” Mr. Pickles, 54, said.
Persons:
Gary Pickles, Pickles, ” Mr, “
Organizations:
Roman Army
Locations:
Northumberland, England, Scottish
![Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Caroline-Radnofsky-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg](/find/mix/0?q="Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Caroline-Radnofsky-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg"){kind=link}