Don't Forget Tiny Tuesday!!!

The protected Weeping Willow tree on the village main road has been clambered about in by tree surgeons today. 

I'm not nervous, oh no, but when we last tried to trim it (having got all the permissions from the local authority), the tree surgeon we contracted with sub'd it out to someone with a chainsaw. This someone butchered the (previously glorious) tree and rather than trim back to the pollard points, cut them off!

As it happened, I was at a local arboretum with the local authority tree officer when calls began to come in from disbelieving parishioners. We weren't prosecuted in the end, although the original contractor was, because we could show we'd done everything right, but the tree was severely impacted.

Years go by, and the tree looks much better, but now once more needs a trim. The surgeon has liaised with the tree officers and agreed a small crown reduction, and in later years we may be able to re-pollard and give the tree a longer and healthier life. Parish Council work never ends.

And at home I am listening to Charlie rehearse her presentation on bacterial resistance and the benefits of cooperative strategies versus cheating, which she will give tomorrow to a bunch of professors at Oxford University. It's a good talk and I even understood some of the long words!

I don't think, though, that I could remember such a long and detailed talk without notes. Which leads me to Tiny Tuesday and (ah-ha) Forget-me-nots! These are only three millimetres across the flower head and I'm now pondering why one in three is yellow centred... Biologist? Not me!