Telephones and Trees

One of the things that failed to happen on the last trip was the reconnection of the telephone line. I'd written to France Telecom but had no reply - it seemed that all the stories about the inefficiency of the organisation were true. However, yesterday I finally got round to opening the stack of post that has accumulated by our front door over the last month. And there was a bill from France Telecom, showing that the line had been connected since the 28th Feb. So I could have phoned home after all. I won't publish the number here but interested parties can apply for it and as soon as we connect a telephone to the socket calls will be made.

Last weekend we made a trip to Buckingham Nurseries where they have a large hedging and bare root tree section. It was bitterly cold and we didn't want to stop outside long. Since the next foray is not yet planned it seemed pointless to buy hundreds of baby plants that would have to be potted up but we couldn't resist starting our collection with some of the trees that will form the backbone of our hedges and coppice. We bought small leaved lime, sweet chestnut, english elm, copper beech, cornelian cherry, myrobalan plum, black stemmed dogwood, wild pear and hornbeam, just two of each. We also asked for two wild cherries but although we paid for them they weren't in the bundle we were given. We also bought a potted liquidamber. They have a wonderful selection there. I was particularly taken with a red stemmed lime, Tilia platyphyllos Rubra, and will probably get one of these next season along with hundreds of hawthorn and blackthorn for the hedges.