Monday 18 October 2010

Strip the Willow


Once upon a time
there grew
a little twisty twig.
It grew out of a low wall.

The little twisty twig grew little twisty branches
and was viewed as an interesting 
and welcome addition to
the low wall.

The little twisty bush was novel and ornamental,
a charming, serendipitous curio.

The little twisty bush
surreptitiously lengthened its trunk
and became a little twisty tree -

a twisted willow tree.
It shed its twisted yellow leaves decoratively,


each autumn


and shaded the greenhouse


a little too effectively,
because quite without anyone noticing
it had grown into
an enormous, jumbled mass
of serpentine branches.


It grew until you could no longer see
the gigantic Leylandii
behind it.
Some feat.


One day it outgrew its strength
and one of its twisty branches split and crashed 
onto the ancient but little apple tree cowering in its shadow.

Tree surgeons came and said, business-like,
'It fulfills two of the 4 Ds -
dead, diseased,
dangerous and damaged.'

And so the work began.







It took four hours.






It's amazing how much light
has returned.
I'm going to grow some peas
up some little twisty twigs
next year.

8 comments:

  1. How many years did the willow take to grow so big, Lucille?

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  2. I've just counted the rings. There were nine.

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  3. What a very pretty garden you have.

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  4. Sounds like an expensive day...

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  5. one forgets how little things can turn into big things that aren't always helpful ...

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  6. Not so many!
    Wow, you have a beautiful garden . . .

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  7. Always a shame when a tree has to come down. Still, you get to look out at the Leylandii......... From where I type this, I can see one in next door's garden. A fully grown specimen set in acres of space and it is a glorious thing.....

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  8. My parents had to have a tree taken down a couple of years ago. It started as a little conifer the size of a Christmas tree and before they knew it, it was so tall, they named it Bruce the Spruce. You have a really lovely garden.

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