They've arrested a man in his 60s now. It's about attitude as much as anything else as far as I'm concerned. Disrespecting something that's a local landmark, or has special meaning. That applies whether it's tree, or anything else.Ā Yes - they can grow another one, but that isn't the point. No wonder people are sickened, angry and upset in equal measure.Ā
It's a place where beautiful isn't enough of a word....
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
With my farming hat on, and having been the parent of a āhelpfulā teenage boy who liked to think for himself and thought he āknew it allā I can imagine a scenario where a farmerās son was sent out with quad bike and chainsaw and told to cut down any trees near walls/fences that could blow down in the winter gales and allow stock to escape. An adult wouldnāt have thought to say āBut not the big sycamoreā because itās āa givenā isnāt it ā¦ everyone knows not that one donāt they?. And a teenage boy who knows it all just sees a tree with its roots undermining a wall and envisages it blowing down in a gale (possibly Storm Agnes ā¦ Ā that was on the way when it happened wasnāt it?) smashing the wall down and letting the sheep out.Ā
I remember my teenage son, in an effort to get into my good books while I was out for the day, weeding the veg patch ā¦ pulling up and burning the newly planted blackcurrant bushes and āthose tall ferny things that were all yellow and deadā ā¦ My asparagus bed!!! āBut asparagus doesnāt look like that!!!ā .āIt does in the autumnĀ ā šĀ
Gardening in Central NorfolkĀ on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Most of the rage I'm seeing on social media isn't from a conservationist angle, many of the angered would ordinarily scoff at or have indifference to the concerns of 'tree huggers'.Ā I'm from the North East of England so my Facebook is full of commentary.
While I think it's sad and a great shame some of the reaction to it has been extreme to my mind, If the perpetrator/s are named I'd fear for them.Ā The reasons for it's felling are not fully known yet either.
Perhaps me thinking it will resprout and enter a new phase of it's life gives me more hope and less despair. It won't be the same wood but to my mind it's the same tree even if its form's different. It would be worse if it had been uprooted and dragged away, all parts gone and only memories. That's just my thoughts on it at present.
In our town we obtained 3 huge planters and planted anĀ Amelanchier in each of tjem, along the main through road. I arrived at the church one morning, to put on an event there to find the tree nearest to it had been sawn off with the tree just dumped in the churchyard. I have never felt such rage before but felt it again when I read how HS2 was bulldozing its way through ancient woodlands.Ā
This sycamore was iconic and meant a lot to people who had personally visited it and I can understand the rage against the perpetrators.Ā But local councils and the government have done far worse.
It's not the tree itself that has caused me so much consternation, but the level of disconnect from and disregard of the environment & natural world, and (in the case of this particular tree) from beauty, history, place and local pride etc that would cause someone to go out in the middle of the night and do this. Yes, the tree can continue to grow, or be replaced, and trees (often lovelier ones) are chopped down for all sorts of reasons. But what does this particular act say about who we are and what kind of a society we've made? That's why I'm sad.Ā
'If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need.'
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It's about attitude as much as anything else as far as I'm concerned. Disrespecting something that's a local landmark, or has special meaning. That applies whether it's tree, or anything else.Ā
Yes - they can grow another one, but that isn't the point. No wonder people are sickened, angry and upset in equal measure.Ā
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
āBut not the big sycamoreā
because itās āa givenā isnāt it ā¦ everyone knows not that one donāt they?.
And a teenage boy who knows it all just sees a tree with its roots undermining a wall and envisages it blowing down in a gale (possibly Storm Agnes ā¦ Ā that was on the way when it happened wasnāt it?) smashing the wall down and letting the sheep out.Ā
I remember my teenage son, in an effort to get into my good books while I was out for the day, weeding the veg patch ā¦ pulling up and burning the newly planted blackcurrant bushes and āthose tall ferny things that were all yellow and deadā ā¦ My asparagus bed!!! āBut asparagus doesnāt look like that!!!ā .āIt does in the autumnĀ ā šĀ
Gardening in Central NorfolkĀ on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
āIt's still magic even if you know how it's done.āĀ
While I think it's sad and a great shame some of the reaction to it has been extreme to my mind, If the perpetrator/s are named I'd fear for them.Ā The reasons for it's felling are not fully known yet either.
Perhaps me thinking it will resprout and enter a new phase of it's life gives me more hope and less despair. It won't be the same wood but to my mind it's the same tree even if its form's different. It would be worse if it had been uprooted and dragged away, all parts gone and only memories. That's just my thoughts on it at present.
This sycamore was iconic and meant a lot to people who had personally visited it and I can understand the rage against the perpetrators.Ā But local councils and the government have done far worse.