Trees do have ears

We've got some wild, wet and windy weather forecast for the next couple of days which usually results in quite a few fallen branches and sometimes trees here at Plas y Nant. Indeed last week we nearly lost half the cottage to a tree - an incident which was quite nerve wracking at the time.

It all started with a visit from the Snowdonia National Park tree officer. We have a few trees here that are causing concern and some that need a bit of titivation so Mike the tree man arranged for the Snowdonia Park tree man to come and see us and come up with a plan of action. A good few hours were spent looking at every single tree (or so it seemed) and whilst we were up on the tennis court the tree officer expressed his opinion about non-native conifers. For those of you who are not familiar with our tennis court three sides are planted with non-native conifers and our cottage is situated just below the court. Well, it appears that his opinion didn't go down well with the tennis court trees. The following day one of them must have worked itself up into such a temper that it split it's trunk completely in half vertically. Unfortunately this particular tree was on the corner and half of it was now leaning at a very precarious angle over the roof of the cottage. My heart plummeted when I saw it. It plummeted even more when I phoned Mike who told me that he was somewhere in the Midlands at a tree chopping exhibition and wouldn't be able to come and make it safe until the Sunday which, as it was only Friday, seemed an interminably long time to wait.  Now we do have a chainsaw but I'm not allowed anywhere near it so once David came home he set to work removing some of the branches to reduce the weight of the tree and hopefully prevent it from crashing down onto the cottage before Sunday. His work appeared to be successful and the tree remained hanging like a loose tooth until Mike arrived with the cavalry and made it safe. 

All's well that ends well but it just goes to prove that trees do have ears and we should pay heed to Windsor Davies and Don Estelle who warned the whispering grass to be careful what it said to the trees.