Yesterday is today

Monday 6th JULY 2020 - Day Ninety-Eight

I am writing today's blog page yesterday if that makes any sense which I guess it will not !  I am sitting by the side of The Temple of Concorde and Victory in The National Trust Gardens at Stowe near Buckingham. It is a beautiful day, butterflies are dancing in the grass with not another human being in sight.

I have just walked around the vast trunk of a tree. How old is the tree ? Four hundred years perhaps older. Just what could this giant of nature tell us if only it could speak ? Who physically planted it ?  What did it look like as a tiny sapling ?

In the Giant Redwoods of Northern California I once came across a tree trunk which would dwarf this specimen. The top of the trunk had been cut flat and at  various places different rings had been marked to say what was happening in the world when that ring was the outer part of the tree. Far from the centre of the trunk was a label which read: Christ born.

This tree here at Stowe is currently witnessing the global pandemic and so its outer ring will mark the terrible year of 2020. Is the tree showing any sign of concern ?  No, of  course not.

Are the butterflies affected by corona virus ?  Silly question !

It is still. It is silent. No sound of any traffic. No aircraft leaving polluting vapour trails in the sky. This is a different world here at Stowe. This is a better world.

I am going now to walk through the trees to another part of the park where i will sit down and talk to you again.

Now I am sitting by the side of a lake, the only sound is the wind in the trees. This is the real world which goes on every day ignorant of the pandemic. Away from this timeless beauty there are sad pathetic individuals celebrating the re-opening of pubs and bars. Having rattled through their alcohol addiction for three months they are being relieved. There are those freaking out with joy that they can now have their hair cut !  Compared to the trees, the lake these people and indeed myself are lower life forms.

I am watching a group of Canada Geese paddling the length of the lake. Do you think a single one of them has the slightest interest in the fact that the easing of lock down has opened McDonald's ?  I doubt a single Canada Goose anywhere in the world has ever been to McDonald's. I would suggest that a reader of this text in one thousand years time will have a clue what McDonald's is, or was, but all will recognise a flock of Canada Geese.

As Maureen, Doggie Jake and I walked along the side of the lake we met another flock of Canada Geese. The calmly got up from where they were sitting and walked back into the water. As they did so they looked at us and reading their minds I could hear them saying in the overall scheme of things we human beings did not matter.

I am now looking up the hiss towards Stowe School where the likes of Richard Branson, David Niven and Leonard Cheshire were educated. To send a child there today you would need to be a multi-millionaire yet in the overall scheme of things all your money, power and influence would mean nothing. One single member from a flock of Canada Geese is of infinitely greater value.