The stormy weather that prevented our trip out to Robben Island (top tip: always believe the Harbour Master) also brought down a tree in the neighbourhood. A big one, too. Maybe 20m of oak, now lying right across one of the roads. There was much oohing and ahhing on the local WhatsApp group, and a couple of lines thanking the Deity of the day for not letting the big tree fall on anyone foolish enough to be out and about during the horrible overnight weather, and for it missing any houses or parked cars.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the tree has not gone anywhere and is still blocking that road some 15 hours later though, and I’m left wondering if the allegedly omnipotent being responsible for the tree coming down safely, ended His/Their involvement at that helpful “not maiming or killing anyone” point, and therefore stopped some way short of preventing any ongoing inconvenience caused by the tree falling as it did.
But we’re told that these big guys upstairs – whichever one(s) you choose to believe in – work in ways in which our puny human brains cannot comprehend. So maybe the ongoing, annoying detour to get out of our local area is there for a good reason (I mean above and beyond the several tonnes of wood blocking the quicker way).
Or maybe there’s some other reason, unrelated to sky fairies.
One thing worth noting is that the oak trees in the neighbourhood were assessed as healthy by the City’s experts back in February. So either the wind was completely off the scale last night (it was pretty breezy), or this oak somehow fooled the tree doctor earlier in the year.
Anyway, there’s plenty of firewood readily available if you’re willing to put in a little bit of hard graft befoe the City turn up, whenever that might be.
