More Sad News To Impart .........

Oh dear, seems to be two words that we are a little oft to be saying in this the first month of 2024 .......

 ..... and yesterday it was Nigel and our beloved niece and nephew's turn to utter said words on the last leg of the school run, a run that had started like any other, but ended in not a few tears.

All was well until they rounded the corner of the small green, when suddenly Iris and Bertie let out the almost simultaneous cry that their treasured and cherished "Magic Faraway Tree", as they liked to call it ............  had gone! 

At first Nigel thought they were just teasing him, but as he too rounded the corner ........

..... he saw that it was indeed true, well, almost 95% of it was gone ........... leaving them to stand and stare in bereft silence, knowing that their Autumns would never, ever be the same again .......

....... after at least five years of Iris filling her pockets with so many of it's fruits (to keep the spiders away at home) that her skirt or coat would have to be unceremoniously hoisted up every five minutes for the rest the their journey.

The tree was indeed a truly magnificent beast, that had watched over them every  September and October, providing them so many happy memories with each gem it dropped, for Iris, in particular, to break open the spiky shells to marvel in turn at the size and shininess of every conker revealed.

Goodness only knows how old the tree was, it must have been two hundred years (???) at the very least ......... what wonderous things must it have witnessed in all that time?

And now, all that was left was it's majestic and beautiful gnarled and twisted trunk .......

....... still standing proud.

When they finally got home, crestfallen from their discovery, they found that "their" tree had made the news ....... perhaps its ancient branches had just given up, causing them to become a hazard on the road where it had grown, way before any road had even been there ............

There is another horse chestnut tree on the green, but not half as spectacular and that doesn't usually yield the calibre of conkers as the Faraway Tree did of yore .........

........ but perhaps it's now up to Nigel to create new memories and traditions for Iris and Bertie to take into the future, a responsibility he is currently feeling and pondering very deeply, bless him.