Survivor

Pictured: today's further progress in taming and shaping [which I started a few weeks ago] of the smaller holly tree that stands guard at the bottom right corner of our bottom garden. The intention was to denude the thing of its lower branches and their foliage and to leave a tall, sculptural 'lollipop' that will still provide a singing platform for blackbirds [blog posts passim] whilst allowing us to see at least some of the view out west towards the boy's home on the horizon on Ynys Môn. So far, so good, and the work hasn't been too difficult, as holly is easily thinned out from near ground level: my ladders having been only really used as steps for the most part. I've just got to take out the last of the lower straggly bits and finish taking the fresh sprouts of new foliage from the lower trunks before they get established. Holly really is one of the great survivors of the plant world: it's practically indestructible and returns from even the most brutal cutting back you can throw at it. The specimen you're looking at was cut right down to almost floor level about ten years ago, and has regrown to some twenty-odd feet tall since then. A remarkable organism that would probably, like the cockroach and the fruit fly, survive a nuclear apocalypse...