English Trees

The trees need to re-assess the contribution they are making to this venture

It was a lovely morning, for 1 January. The sun made a valiant effort to warm our faces, or at least blind us as we turned up Bean Lane, and we parked our new, Green (and green) Mini in the usual layby.

I wondered, though, how trees could be said to ‘fail’. Do they have end-of-year reviews with 360 feedback from other forest denizens?

Birch: “I find Oak to be a solid companion. He should stop being so stiff and start holding onto his leaves a little longer.”

Robin: “Oak has a lot to learn from Birch. I know he’s only been here for fifty years, but he could try being more welcoming to newbies like my family and me.”

Pinning Robin down for his EOY feedback is a challenge

This is the place, while lovely, that displays the Parish’s nannying fussbucketry not only with warnings of the ‘Deep Water’ (by a sizable pond), but also signs that say ‘Shallow Water’. With a picture of someone trying to paddle, I guess?

I wonder who thought to themselves that what this scene needed was a garish yellow sign.

Regardless, we had a lovely time wandering through the mud and the shoofy leaves, and steadfastly failed to recognize a single failed tree.