Is it too late?

This picture borrowed from Google is of a tiny surviving tree in a cracked and parched landscape.

For many, this Summer has been wonderful, hot and dry day after day, week after week.  For others, less so.

Never a lover of hot weather I have (at best) survived the months up until the end of September and am only now beginning to be able to breath and sleep more easily.

What has made this year so much worse for me has been the sight of our local trees gradually losing their freshness, leaves drooping, then curling and dying and even the trunks of some really big old trees losing colour and visibly fading.

I watered my garden as long as I could, but could do nothing for the poor trees gasping at the roadsides.

Like most gardeners and tree lovers I have rejoiced at the (very occasional) sight of clouds on the horizon, and like many of them have felt like crying as they, once more, passed us by on their way elsewhere.

Yesterday we had rain all day.  I am still recovering from my bug (see previous post) and had no intention of going anywhere, so welcomed the rare sight, praying for it to continue as long as possible.

On the bus a few days ago I saw, in a group of mixed large and small trees that some of the more recently planted ones were in fact dead.

Whether we will now begin to have more rain, it is after all October, I don't know, but I am hoping against hope that this will happen.

Apart from the beauty these lovely living things add to our landscapes, trees are the lungs of town and city and without their graceful presence we cannot survive.

Not once, among the glib meteorological tv weather reports and constantly repeated "another lovely day for the South", have I hear any mention of the terrible damage this 4 month drought has caused.

Surely I'm not the only one who is concerned for our precious greenery?