Then the email signal on my smartphone bings, and it's a loyal "Unionville in the News" reader informing me that AT THAT VERY MOMENT two "National Geographic" photographers are at London Grove Friends Meeting making photos of the Penn Oak.
In a matter of seconds I'd removed my earbuds and shuffled together my stack of papers and was on my way to the meetinghouse. There I met the very nice husband-and-wife team of Diane Cook and Len Jenshel, who are doing a story for the magazine on "wise trees." The assignment has taken the New York-based couple to India, Mexico and Ground Zero in Manhattan, where they shot the "survivor" Callery pear tree that lived through the 9/11 disaster.
They wanted to include London Grove's Penn Oak not only for its majesty but also because it was a witness to William Penn's requirement that Pennsylvania settlers preserve one acre of trees for every five acres cleared. They said they planned to photograph the tree at dusk Friday and dawn Saturday -- they scheduled the shoot to coincide with the full moon. (For my photographer friends: They were using Nikon D800 bodies, which "are good for working at night," said Diane. A few years ago they shot the night-blooming plants at Longwood Gardens.)
Diane said the publication date for the story keeps changing, but they think it's scheduled for the August 2015 issue.
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