A tender tale of trees...

        I love trees. WE love trees. And we've been fortunate to have a back yard surrounded by stuff that makes it look like we're in the middle of the Botanic Gardens. Big stuff. Okay, the Silky Oak over the back covers everything in sight with crap once a year but hey, that's the price you pay to have trees as friends and neighbours. Which leads me to....

    For the last 16 years since we moved into our current place, we've had a pair of nice soft ornamental trees against the back fence, great garden shelter for summer, bare in winter, no vices.

        Last summer one of them started to shed early, and in the spring was much slower than its mate to re-foliage, in fact, put up just about nothing, while its offsider flourished as usual, soft and green as ever. But they're now 30-odd years old, although no idea what life span is normal.

        Anyway, it's been getting a bit of extra die-back for some years, but this species (can't find it's name, looks a bit Asian) tend to anyway, so no worries. But its trunk is splitting and bits are falling off and there's just a last gasp determination about the few leaves it put out. We could see that it was dying.

        But we love these two trees, and when a well-meaning mate offered to come and do a bit of chainsaw massacre, put it out of its misery, I thought no, let the old fella have one last summer any way he can. Pathetic sentimentality I know but.... us old fellas have to stick together.

        There's not going to be a happy ending to this, it'll have to come out in the winter, and someone will probably have to build a shady thingy in its place, as no new tree will fill it out in our time.

        So, old tree living out its final days. Sad sad sad.    

        But, remember the Acorn Diary thing I did a while back? - three acorns planted in pots and all sprouted. But two flourished and one died in infancy, and those two are doing well. Not that we intend to plant a Quercus Robur - the mighty English Oak - in the back yard, because in time - say 100 years! - it'd push the bloody house over. NO idea what we WILL do with them though. Probably not going to be our problem.

        Okay, that's all, knew you'd be fascinated by all this.

        Cheers.....

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