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  • #1664773
    Avatar photosporting sam
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    • Total Posts 16526

    On Wednesday I took out a tree. It was in my way you see. I was planting up a new bed in a way I’ve done many times. This particular bed is a floral one rather than a vegetable bed, but I employ the same mulch methods as in no dig gardening that I’d use on an allotment.
    As I wrestled to remove this burberis type ‘intruder’ I was tinged with guilt.
    Did I really need to remove it? Couldn’t I incorporate it into the design? But no,
    it was in the way and I’d probably cut it back five years previously when I’d first laid this bed.
    Back then, I’d used a ton of cardboard, horse manure and lots and lots of leaves and other brown and green organic material. It had looked a eccentric English mess as a lot of my embryonic projects often do. When the winds blew, the leaves went everywhere and blackbirds and robins went wild digging into my organic hill of free food as the worms got to work. In a matter of months I had pure soil and a flourishing new bed full of life and beauty. As I dug out the bounteous agapanthus plants that had flourished over that time, my initial oversight in not fastidiously removing all sellotape from the cardboard meant five years on I was having to pull out bits of plastic here and there amongst the plant roots but I was also looking at black as your hat beautiful weapons grade soil. I’ve repeatedly split the agapanthus plants and they are in a dozen different locations around town at various allotments and gardens. Lots of admiring glances from passers by as I plan more adjustments to my creation.
    I’ve started the cardboard process again in parts of the bed but to be honest, the soil is so good, I don’t really need to mulch it as intensively, but it is just such a rewarding and enjoyable process, I couldn’t resist re-employing it again partially for about a quarter of the length of the bed.
    But back to the tree I used a strong spade a fork and elbow to finally strangle and twist this blighter out of existence. But the guilt remained. Couldn’t I just leave it there? No dig it out Sam and finally,it was gone.
    I’m sure I took a lot longer to win my battle than the thugs who later on that day killed the famous Hadrian’s wall tree. A shocking hate filled act of vandalism. Which beggars belief and until the reasons are made known, it is hard to understand what could possibly move someone to do such a thing.
    I’ve resolved to put another tree in my bed now and I think every time I start a project where it is practical I’ll incorporate a tree of some kind just to say trees matter as much any people and they’ll be around longer than any of us.

    #1664775
    Avatar photoRefuse To Bend
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    • Total Posts 2333

    I was just about to start a thread on this. As you say we do not know the full story but it appears to be a professional “job” so where the 16yo they arrested fits in who knows. I’m sure another tree will be put there but that is no compensation for what has happened.

    The things I want most in life are the things that I can't win.

    #1664778
    Avatar photoIanDavies
    Blocked
    • Total Posts 12998

    “Sam The Tree KILLER” definitely has a ring to it – much better than “Sporting Sam.”

    What do you mean, I’m not helping??!!

    I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
    https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
    https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
    It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"

    #1664779
    Avatar photoNathan Hughes
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    • Total Posts 32167

    My favourite Sam post ever…

    my initial thought is how do you find the time to garden as well as bash the bookies

    Agree with Ian, “Sam The Tree KILLER” does have a good ring to it

    Blackbeard to conquer the World

    #1664783
    Avatar photosporting sam
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    • Total Posts 16526

    I don’t know, but yesterday trying to dig and race read didn’t really work at all.
    “Sttk” does have a certain ring to it.

    The tree incidents, mine and the one up north got me thinking, maybe I should branch out a bit…..
    As I go backwards and forwards every week collecting horse poo I wondered yesterday if the stable would mind if I put a few bags out a month at home and a sign giving the opportunity to buy a bag in return for a voluntary donation to the local hospice for about three pounds a bag. No cash involved, take the bag and donate directly to the hospice online. Ten bags a month potentially £30 straight to the charity. Carbon footprint removed other than mine, just a thin trail of methane. The bags can weight quite a bit so it would be particularly appealing for older people.
    No need to drive to the stable, no need to be buried up to one’s wellies or worse digging out the good stuff, if anyone lived nearby, a wheelbarrow could be deployed. Either way, bags filled for free and a lot of the spadework done.

    #1664892
    Red Rum 77
    Participant
    • Total Posts 4776

    Thought I’d put this in before Gamble

    I think that I shall never see.
    A poem lovely as a tree.

    A tree whose hungry mouth is prest.
    Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

    A tree that looks at God all day,
    And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

    A tree that may in summer wear
    A nest of Robins in her hair;

    Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
    Who intimately lives with rain.

    Poems are made by fools like me,
    But only God can make a tree.

    Not my work but of Joyce Kilmer and used partly in Superman 2

    The best things in life are free.
    But you can give them to the birds and bees.

    #1664894
    Avatar photoSteeplechasing
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    • Total Posts 6114

    Jeremy

    #1664929
    Avatar photoDrone
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    • Total Posts 6009

    Very drole Steeplechasing :yes:

    Nice post Sporting Sam; good to know there’s a fellow son of the soil in this hamlet

    I’ve walked through the Sycamore Gap on a couple of occasions and a spectacular scene it is (was :negative: ). Whether the felling was just an act of wanton vandalism or something more sinister will no doubt be answered if/when charges are brought

    The outpouring of dismay emphasizes the primal, atavistic attachment to trees and the natural world in general that still persists wthin us

    Kilmer’s poem was set to music and recorded by many a crooner. A suitably haunting, yearning piece: Paul Robeson did a fine version but my favourite is by Nelson Eddy

    #1665091
    Avatar photoIanDavies
    Blocked
    • Total Posts 12998

    Altogether now….

    “Oh, Sam kills trees
    and Sam kills trees.
    Sam kills trees
    and Sam kills trees.
    Sam kills trees
    and Sam kills trees.
    Sam is the TRF….
    …..tree killer!”

    I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
    https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
    https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
    It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"

    #1665270
    Avatar photogamble
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    • Total Posts 5686

    The thought once occurred to me that it was rather good fortune for the human race that trees came with arms only and had no legs attached. In the hypothetically worrying nightmare scenario trees might move about in packs in cover of darkness and could easily threaten the infrastructure. One day you could be looking out of the window at a peaceful countryside setting and the next morning after a woody night of activity you might pull the curtains to view just a barren tree devoid moonscape.

    Anyone who destroyed a 🌲 could awaken the interest of the angry forest mob – some soon on the move and seeking justice.

    ” No it’s not the Jehovah’s witnesses knocking – it’s a bunch of angry looking trees “

    #1665298
    Avatar photosporting sam
    Participant
    • Total Posts 16526

    Yes Drone I’m a son of the soil alright. It takes a lifetime to grasp, but it’s always been there. This is a good time of the year. My Jerusalem artichokes are currently flowering in their first year by my shed. A beautiful miniature multihead collection of sunflowers which makes a nice cut flower.

    Well the day I posted this thread coppice won at Newmarket followed later there by treegawny or something.
    Wood you believe it!!!

    #1665425
    Avatar photoIanDavies
    Blocked
    • Total Posts 12998

    Magnus Magnusson: “Name?”

    “Sam The Tree Killer.”

    Magnus Magnusson: “Specialised subject?”

    “Tree killing.”

    Magnus Magnusson: “Sam The Tree Killer, you have chosen Tree killing as your specialised subject, and your two minutes on tree killing starts now….”

    I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
    https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
    https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
    It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"

    #1665527
    Avatar photosporting sam
    Participant
    • Total Posts 16526

    Magnus
    “That’s the end of your specialist round Sam. You passed on all your questions.
    I thought you knew your stuff.”

    Sam.
    “It just goes to show we are learning something new every day.”
    Magnus.
    “Oh, and what did you learn today Sam”

    Sam.
    Chezza, thinks you’re still alive”.

    #1665533
    Avatar photoIanDavies
    Blocked
    • Total Posts 12998

    Chezza lives in the past – so he is.

    The past had its downsides (no internet) but it’s upsides too (trees didn’t yet live in fear of Sam The Tree Killer).

    I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
    https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
    https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
    It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"

    #1665571
    Avatar photosporting sam
    Participant
    • Total Posts 16526

    I’m back at the scene today and in between rooting amongst the leaves and weeds looking for some horticultural based connections to my horses that I did not connect immediately last week to proceedings.
    The only crimes are mine, against the written word.

    #1665590
    Avatar photosporting sam
    Participant
    • Total Posts 16526

    The perfect riposte posted five minutes ago in the dlaps.

    “Since last week, when some complete numbnuts cut down the beautiful tree at sycamore lodge by Hadrian’s wall I’ve been looking for an appropriately named horse

    and PHOTOSYNTHESIS

    fits the bill”
    Navan 1:55

    #1665594
    Avatar photoIanDavies
    Blocked
    • Total Posts 12998

    Sam’s most hated track (I’m told it’s actually about Canadian politics, but I never let facts get in the way): https://youtu.be/JnC88xBPkkc?si=HjWo75jQS364u-l6

    I am "The Horse Racing Punter" on Facebook
    https://mobile.twitter.com/Ian_Davies_
    https://www.facebook.com/ThePointtoPointNHandFlatracingpunter/
    It's the "Millwall FC" of Point broadcasts: "No One Likes Us - We Don't Care"

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