The Yew Tree in the graveyard .........the only bird that can eat the berry is the Thrush then he proceeds to spit it out landing on the headstones and pitting them esecially the white marbled stones but the trees remain read on and you will see why.......... The yew's reputation for long life is due to the unique way in which the tree grows. Its branches grow down into the ground to form new stems, which then rise up around the old central growth as separate but linked trunks. After a time, they cannot be distinguished from the original tree. So the yew has always been a symbol of death and rebirth In Irish mythology, the yew is one of the five sacred trees brought from the Otherworld at the division of the land into five parts. Known as the Tree of Ross, it was said to be the "offspring of the tree that is in Paradise", and it brought lasting plenty to Ireland. In the Brehon Laws, it is named as one of the Seven Chieftain Trees, with heavy penalties for felling one. Ownership of a yew-tree is the cause of a great battle in the twelfth century tale, "Yew Tree of the Disputing Sons". The tree's high status is also shown in an Irish tale from the Historical Cycle in which a swine herd dreamed he saw a yew tree upon a rock, with an oratory in front of it. Angels ascended and descended from a flagstone at the threshold. He told a druid who interpreted the dream to mean that the rock would be the seat of kings of Munster from that day forth, and the first king would be he who kindled a fire beneath the yew. Staves of yew were kept in pagan graveyards in Ireland where they were used for measuring corpses and graves. Yew was one of the nine sacred trees for kindling Beltane fires, and the old Scottish rhyme about the need-fire calls it 'the tree of resilience." Another famous Scottish yew stood at the Tobar an luthair, the Yew Tree Well in Easter Ross. Its presence lent healing qualities to the water, until someone cut the tree down. Whoever did the deed must have regretted it, for an old curse stated: Well of the Yew Tree, Well of the Yew Tree, To thee should honour be given; In Hell a bed is ready for him Who cuts the tree about thine ears. A similar fate awaited an individual at the church of St. Kevin of Glendalough, in County Wicklow, Ireland, who was cursed because, as a rhyme states: He cut down the Sacred Yew That holy Kevin planted. ©Cara_Links Researching Co.Wicklow,Wexford. A headstone or two, a dusting of elsewhere A friend is one who accepts your past, loves you as you are, and believes in all of your tomorrow's. ***Please remind me if I have not done that job for you, my intentions are always good, but sometimes time runs out on me, so I leave it up to you to remind me.