A Sad Loss

Yesterday, we mourned the loss of a dear friend. I refer to an 80ft hickory tree in our yard. Sadly it had died last Fall and although we put off having it felled, it was too near our house to risk leaving nature to do the work for us.

You may wonder why I call a tree a friend? Let me tell you that my native Norfolk, England, has witnessed the disappearance of trees at an alarming rate over the past half century. Few homes, even in the countryside, have the abundance of trees that we are fortunate enough to enjoy here in North Carolina. Modern farming methods dictated the removal of many small woods and copses and just as importantly, hedgerows. This had a devastating effect on wildlife and it is only comparatively recently that the importance of this is being widely recognized. The mighty storms of 1987 contributed to the loss with thousands of established specimens felled by nature's wrath in 24 hours. Add to this the scourge of Dutch Elm disease and a huge percentage of natural woodland was effected.

Our time in near treeless southern Spain made us realize how much we missed trees. So on our first visits to North Carolina we were enthralled at the amount of woodland. My cousin, on her first visit here from England, commented on arrival at RDU that she was amazed at the greenery and trees she saw from the windows of her aircraft on it's approach.

We still have a large number of trees in the yard and I have negotiated with our friendly tree doctor for some of those to receive "surgery" in the Fall to help manage and preserve them.

Our dear old hickory - probably ninety years in the making - was felled and cleared in less than ninety minutes. Yes, I love trees!

TW3 (That Was The Week That Was)

I haven't posted for some time. I sometimes wake up in the early hours and whilst laying in semi-consciousness I think of excellent topics on which to post. Of course, by the time I get up, have been for our daily pre-breakfast walk, had said breakfast, done chores (okay, the latter doesn't take that long) and switched on the lap-top I've forgotten all the ideas I had for writing.

It was my birthday on Wednesday, a monumental one for me, reaching the age of 65, the normal retiring age in England. I retired from a very stressful job nine years early, following a minor, but nevertheless frightening, heart attack. A sign to ease off on the stress. Praise the Lord I took it seriously and did just that. I still have days (fortunately very few) when my body tells me all is not well. I know the signs and react by "shutting down". This happened on the day before my birthday. I had planned so much for the day, a pot-luck lunch with Ninth Street Neighbors, a one-to-one meeting with our vicar, bible-study in the evening, but after stubbornly going grocery shopping I knew I had to cancel these events and "shut-down". As usual, it worked and by the anniversary of my birth I was all but back to normal.

It wasn't exactly an exciting day, but I did manage some long telephone conversations with family and friends in England, catching up with the latest news from there and Spain (two friends had just returned from seven weeks there).

My former local soccer (football) team, Norwich City, has just been relegated to the third tier of English League Football, the minor league club I supported and helped run for quite a few years, Great Yarmouth Town, just missed out on promotion, whilst the team I follow in Spain, Málaga CF, look as though they will miss out on a UEFA place. Still the soccer season is underway here and I look forward to attending some Carolina RailHawks home games.

And, after some tornado warnings earlier in the week we at last seem to have some signs of summer - just 90F (32C) today so room for higher temperatures yet, hence the pre-breakfast walks and mowing the grass before noon!

Just where the week went to? I have no idea.