De laatste blaadjes rond het Knopenlaantje vallen

If you go hiking in the forest around castle Vorden, you will find a special avenue of trees to the south, parallel to the Veengoot. In the past this avenue was called the Krebberslaantje, but that is forgotten because almost everyone in Vorden knows the place as “Knopenlaantje”. This name got it in the vernacular and in the meantime a wooden nameplate has been placed. The avenue has its own unique beauty. The light falls beautifully through the branches, especially the low branches and shrubs show distinct growth patterns. In the avenue trees are tall trees with some bushes in between. If you look at the branches a bit better, you will see dozens of nodes. Some branches have one knot or two branches are tied together. There are also shrubs that are all knots. Branches loosely intertwined, others fused into heavy knots. You can no longer untangle most of the knots without damaging the tree. It is fascinating. Who did that and why?

In the last century this was a forest track where it was busy at dusk. Much busier than on paths in other forest areas of Vorden. Couples from the village of Vorden would love to walk there. It was romantic. Especially in the spring when the branches of the trees unfolded further. But also in the summer because then it was so beautiful green. In autumn it was beautiful because of all those golden-yellow colors. In the low-hanging young beech sprigs they put together a knot to seal each other’s love in a very natural way. Presumably, this use was created before 1940. In any case, in the fifties it is written in magazines. The knots in the branches have been the symbol of the love of many people from Vorden and surroundings for many generations. Love forges a bond that gets steadily stronger over the years. According to the tradition, a commitment lasts longer when the couple first goes to the button lane to put a loop in a young, springy beech branch. The young people did so, without giving much publicity. Some of the knots became stiff and stiff in the course of time, as perhaps the couple who had put the knot.