By: Blonde Two
Maudlin is a very expressive word, almost onomatopoeic I would say. It is not, however, a healthy state in which to be; so I (although currently in danger of falling foul of the self-pity bug) am going to use my excellent compass skills and navigate my way into the positivity of Pollyanna Town (Blonde One has taught me well).
On Saturday afternoon the Two Blondes received (via the medium of Twitter) some news. I was very sad about it at the time, as in my Blonde head it was a portender of doom. In the grand scheme of life, love and loss however, the news was not spectacularly awful – someone had sawn our lovely Dartmoor Christmas Tree down.
I went up to have a look for myself yesterday and could tell from the bottom of the hill that Tree was no longer standing tall and proud. As I got closer though, it became clear that Tree has survived, albeit a bit shorter, and has plenty of branch space for baubles next year.
I’m not going to rant and rave about who might have done this deed or indeed why they did it. People are all different, some talk to trees, some mindlessly cut them down. All that matters is that I realised once I got up there, that the Dartmoor Christmas Tree is still hanging on in there, is still in the most peaceful of spots and can still be the Two Blondes’ happy place.
A good decision. There is nothing that can usefully be said about this bit of foolishness. To mobilise a familiar and predictable set of words (not that you’re given to that) merely serves to blur the sharp responses that are in all your readers’ minds. Far better to to play around with Polyanna. A reference that started out with good intent, then somehow lost heart (Too simplistic?) and eventually became pejorative. I thoroughly approve of what can only be described as your “knowing” rehabilitation of the word and applaud the risks you are taking. A measure of your self-confidence but then I hardly need to draw attention to that.
That must be hard to take. You have my commiserations. Your positive reaction is heartening. Whilst you can continue to enjoy the special place, why not plant another tree nearby?
I like the idea of tree planting but it is not really allowed – would have to be a torchlight mission in place that no-one would ever find.
That’s sounds a great plan – appeals to my rebellious streak. Go for it.
Well, we still have your children’s story and blondetwosister’s lovely drawings to commemorate Tree. He (I feel sure ‘he’ is correct) will live on and maybe even one day become famous!
What he needs next Christmastide is a fairy for his naked top. I know someone who knits fairies…….!
A Christmas Fairy would be lovely and now we can reach the top of the Tree!
Right, I’ll try and be positive, but grrrrrrr whats wrong with people. Very sad, very deliberate and planned – who walks around Dartmoor with a saw. Feeling very sad 🙁
Take comfort in the possibility that the Dartmoor Christmas Tree may still yet be alive when the nasty chopper-downers are tree root fodder.
There are some other little Christmas trees on Dartmoor already, but the more the merrier and here’s hoping your special one survives. Trees are amazingly good at that. A huge beech tree fell near the cliffs and the land-owner says the timber can’t be used because the grain is twisted, but I think that sliced across, it would make lovely garden table-tops. Sadly, it will probably end up as firewood – a hundred years of growth gone.
Thank you Roderick. As you can imagine, I wrote many long, angry blog posts/rants in my head but ranting is unattractive and not at all Blonde!
Oh, that is simply the saddest thing and in my sort of sleep deprived, slightly emotional state has made me shed a tear!
I’ll tell you about it tomorrow! Tree now lives again in our book, and, this December, was the most beautiful half Christmas tree ever!