Trees. Social media stuff - abuse and fortune! The importance of lions.

Out and about the other day I spotted a tree surgeon’s van, with his trailer behind with its machinery for reducing branches into wood chips. The van bore the name of the company: Special Branch. Clever! I do like a witty name for a company. 

Tree surgeon sounds a lot more professional than wood-cutter. Will we see modern versions of Little Red Riding Hood where the small girl and her grandmother are saved from the BigBad Wolf by the tree surgeon? Not beyond the bounds of possibility! I suppose tree surgeons, like landscape artists, can charge more for their very professional services than a wood cutter, or a gardener.  And it can be quite fascinating to watch a tree surgeon at work, fastened in harness to the upper branches of a tall tree.

However, it seems to me that there are rather a lot of tree surgeons around at present. I come across evidence of their work when I am out running or walking - usually a tree stump and some of the wood chippings on the ground. Presumably the wood chippings are sold on for use in gardens: another source of income. Along the Donkey Line bridle path, when a tree is cut down, quite often the chippings are just left at the side of the path, as are the larger bits of tree trunk, gradually getting a coating of moss, know in our family as “Saddleworth Green”.

It always makes me feel rather sad when a tree is cut down. It has taken them so long to grow (unless it’s a leylandia) and usually they are things of beauty (with the exception of leylandii). But there are laws protecting trees, well, some of them. According to this article though a surprising number of trees are being cut down or injected with poisons to kill them off, usually because they are in an inconvenient place, blocking a view, rather than because they are a hazard! Poole in Dorset appears to be the capital of tree murders - eat your heart out Midsomer Murders! It’s not always possible to catch the culprit, apparently, but the article tells of one man, Robert Page, who had a 20-metre Monterey Pine in the garden killed off. “The 65-year-old tree, described as “huge and historic”, had been under a tree protection order since 1989. Page applied to have the tree felled, claiming it was a risk, but this was turned down, too.” On this occasion he was prosecuted. “Page was found guilty, and ordered to pay £80,000: £25,000 in court costs, five grand for the loss in public benefit, and perhaps most significantly, £50,000 for the amount his property had gained in value through the loss of the tree.”

Think twice before you have your trees cut down. Mind you, I’m pretty sure a good tree surgeon should be able to advise you!

 It’s raining now. I managed to run first thing without problems but the day looks set to be cloudy with showers, some of them heavy, as the weathermen say. On the radio news yesterday evening i heard that during the heatwave weathermen received masses of hate-mail and online abuse. It’s not that anyone really blamed them for the actual weather but it seems that climate change deniers were cross with the met office because they kept blaming the hot weather on climate change! It’s a strange world we live in!

I quite like social media. I like being able to be in informal contact with a lot of old friends and former colleagues, people I might not bother to write to or call on the telephone even if I might send them a Christmas card. But I find the desperate need some people have to criticise and be rude to complete strangers truly disturbing. And of course, there’s the political world, where it seems you can’t get on unless you have your media presence and platform. And then there are the “professional” social media people, as seen in the circus that was the Rebecca Vardy v Colleen Rooney court case. Rebecca Vardy faces £2.5m legal expenses and a “ruined reputation”. Really ruined? That remains to be seen. The lawyers must be laughing their legal socks off! But I remain mystified by the fact that people make fortunes from podcasts about nonsense like that! 

And surely things like the Vardy-Rooney case, fashion podcasts, watching the on-line life of a woman famous for being well dressed and supposedly beautiful is hardly doing great things for women’s lib!

But, hey, the England women’s football team is doing well and their success is prompting a lot of discussions a out equality for women in sport, parity with male professionals and so on. We’re rooting for them, even if Phil keeps,getting a bit indignant about their being labelled “The Lionesses”! After all, “The Lions” play rugby not football. But this article about a medieval pendant found found close to a late series of late iron age and Romano-British enclosures being excavated as part of the HS2 development assures me that “The Football Association has been using the three lions symbol (more commonly with the lions in blue) since the late 19th century; a version of it is also used by cricket’s ECB.”

There you go!

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!