Trees and fungi and adventurous eating. A a bit about government monitoring.

It’s almost a month since some vandal (a very organised vandal) cut down the eponymous sycamore at Sycamore Gap. In the news today I read that the wood from the tree is being removed to a “safe place” while they decide what to do with it. A number of artists have asked if they can have some of it to produce works of art, which sounds like a good idea to me. But what the National Trust and something called the Hadrian’s Wall Partnership don’t want is random people coming along and taking bits of it for mementoes, rather like they did with the Berlin Wall. Now I am imagining adverts on social media as odd bits of sycamore are put up for sale in the future. Like saints’ bones and other holy relics.

In the days after the tree felling someone went along a planted a sapling to replace the ancient tree. This was a man from Newcastle who seemingly wanted to “restore people’s faith in humanity”, but it was quickly removed by the National Trust. It is, I am told, a criminal offence to damage a Unesco world heritage site and the National Trust was keen to discourage any other would-be planters. So it seems that the National Trust does not want random folk going along and planting trees on their sites. That’s a bit exclusionist, if you ask me! And I hope they didn’t just throw away the thoughtfully planted sapling but found it a new home somewhere. We need to look after our trees.

There’s a tree up the road from our house which has a fine crop of fungi growing at and around its base. I remember reading some time ago about the symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi. We only see the surface stuff but underground and possibly in the tree’s root system there are some kind of tendrils that help spread plant sugars and improve the soil. Something like that anyway - I not a soil scientist. Despite admiring the shapes and colours of mushroom/toadstools, I am always a little suspicious of them. Look but don’t touch is the general rule in our household but we usually take photos and send them to Granddaughter Number One who takes a great interest in them. And then I read this article about how we should be more adventurous in what fungi we eat.

We may need to get over our suspicions, in theory anyway, but personally I’ll stick to the ones I can buy in the supermarket. I’m not averse to trying oddly shaped mushrooms, so long as their culinary safety is guaranteed. On the whole, though, I prefer some nice button mushrooms, fried with a bit of garlic, on toast with a fried egg on top!

Now, yesterday  friend of mine had one of her posts cancelled by Facebook. It seems she wanted to post and comment on something said by a politician but Facebook deemed it “incitement to terrorism or violence”. Politicians can say it but we can’t repeat it. Here’s a link to an article about government monitoring of what classroom assistants and librarians get up to on the internet. Big Brother is indeed watching us.

Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!