Years ago I returned from a trip to the U.K. to find the tree outside was decimated. That’s maybe an exaggeration but I was shocked. As the taxi pulled up I could now see most of the front of the house.

A branch had broken and MAnjula had had the tree trimmed. Not quite pollarding but a shock nevertheless. It was like a no 1 haircut.

What had happened to our tree!?

It’s now recovered and dominates.

It’s a beautiful tree that we both loved. The Indian way is however to hack them back. Its a process that needs managing.

Today

A couple of branches had come loose in a recent storm and so it needed a trim—— carefully supervised to ensure they didn’t go too far.

I didn’t want the same hacking so both SB and I supervised and approved each branch to be cut.

Micro-management in action.

The security guy from the local school doubles as a tree chopper. He did the duty. Later we’ll have someone do a more precision job with a circular saw.

There was a keystone cops element to it.

Thankfully we didn’t pull down any of the wires

Manjula once declared her wish to be reincarnated as a tree as it supported, protected and sheltered people. That’s just like her

I think our strong beautiful tree was in her mind.

We now have symbolic trees in our life, in the house, the car and our real beauty outside.