A sad sight
Jul 29th, 2009 by elle
I saw something today that made me both sad and angry….
I was on a walk to the supermarket, and noticed that a house that had recently sold on my street seemed to be having some work done. That work just happened to be chopping down an oak tree that must have been around 70+ years old. It was a big, beautiful, healthy tree, that covered the entire front garden. There appeared to be more large trees in the back garden too, and those had been cut down and were being put through a bark-chipper.
It made me so sad and angry to see this going on, why buy a house with a tree like that, a huge, spreading, established oak in the front garden if all you’re going to do is chop it down!? Before the tree was cut down, it made the house look about ten-times better than the house looks without it. I mean it, it seemed like a lovely, cozy, woody, dappled sort of place. And now that it’s gone, the house looks cheap, common, a bit shabby, and ugly.
It makes me livid to see that kind of thing happen. This tree was old, really old, older than most of the people who live in the area, as old as the retired people who live in a retirement community near by, and I think something that wasn’t hurting anyone, that was helping the environment, and had lived peacefully that long should have been allowed to stay!
A charity organisation after my own heart, titled the Totoro Forest Project, has been buying up parts of a forest outside of Tokyo so that they can remain undamaged by urban expansion. Creator of My Neighbour Totoro is involved with the Project, and this forest is actually said to be the inspiration for the film. It’s heartening to see such dedication for a cause after my own heart.
I have to include a tree inspired knitting pattern today, so here is a Tree of Life Afghan. Yes, that was intentionally picked for the name. 