 The History of the World Written in Rings. Welcome, Valerie. Thank you, Marnie. Thank you so much for having me. No, thank you for coming on. So why do you get a ring for every year? What you need to form a ring every year is that the tree stops growing. And so when they start growing in the spring, they form a certain kind of wood. It's called early wood. It's typically light coloured. It has big vessels in it.