Nature, one way or another

(Microsoft Media)

The other afternoon, there was a pretty severe storm and one of the two pencil pines, hardly two metres tall and thin, as you'd expect, standing at the back of the garden, had given way to it. Or so it seemed. Naturally, Peter's wife immediately asked him to go and have a look. "But it's raining," Peter complained. Well, wait till there's a break and then go and have a look.

Ok, let's wait, and Peter hoped that the rain and storm weren't going to abate anytime soon, so he settled back into his chair and continued reading in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice hoping to find out how Elizabeth was going to react to Darcy's letter.

Suddenly, though, his wife announced a break in the pelting rain's pattern. Oh, blimey, Peter thought, oh well, let's go and have a look then for heaven's sake. When he opened the terrace door it was still raining, though somewhat less, and Peter began wondering what his wife might call it when the rain really stopped.

(Microsoft Media)

But he ventured through the raindrops anyway and arrived at the deplorable pencil pine in the farthest corner of the garden. Luckily, the stem wasn't broken, only bent over. Peter found it remarkable that a tree should be so flexible, but then, it's a pencil pine and they remain thin and flexible to a certain extent, at least for as long as they aren't considerably taller than Peter himself.

After Peter had realised that he could easily put the pine straight up again since there was still a strong wooden staff standing beside it and that the string that had previously held the pine to it had simply become loose, he tied everything back together, pressed the soil around the staff tight and went back inside, just, however, to find his wife asking him why he hadn't brought the three lemons that were lying under the lemon tree, and if he couldn't also bring along some parsley while he was down there anyway.