GEMINILOGGBOOKOBERDADAISTICUS

Of squirrels and magpies

My good neighbours, a pair of squirrels, frantically run up and down the large spruce which has been sentenced to death. I hope I'm somewhere else when it gets taken down. Had inter-species communication been easier I would have expressed my deep regrets directly, instead of spreading the word on the smolnet. It's not that I haven't tried. Their dry clucking sound seems to be a warning signal, or something they say when they are dismayed, like their way of cursing. It's not too hard to imitade by smacking your tongue and shaping an approximately squirrely vowel. I sometimes talk back to them like that. Maybe I once succeeded in piquing the curiosity of a squirrel who flitted across the apple tree; as I clucked it actually approached me a bit and looked at me with what may have been puzzlement.

Yesterday one of the squirrels carried a large red apple and carefully placed it far out on a branch of the spruce. A few stories up there is the magpie recidency, a luxurious nest which has been improved and extended over generations. Magpies and squirrels of course don't get along very well, which is a rich source of entertainment as they take turns chasing each other. Some people speculate that squirrels don't have very good memory, that they just hoard seeds and other food and hide it in various places which they chance upon during the winter season. I think they remember perfectly well where they hid their food, but then maybe their spouse or a bird finds it first.

The local squirrels have a penchant for soft, coloured cloth. A few years ago they collected pieces of a thin blue curtain that hang outdoors by systematically rolling it up into neat rolls. They also found a fur which they bit off pieces of and stuffed their mouth full of, sticking out on all sides like an enormous moustache. I bet they like to vary their home interiors and follow the latest fashion.

Roe-deer also often strife across the area. This summer a calf was resting in the backyard, perhaps not in its best health, because when I came back half an hour later it still lied there under the big plum tree and didn't move even as I approached and got quite close to it. Unfortunately the plum has been reduced to something more like a cactus now, along with a few other formerly beautiful shadow casting trees. A wild-apple tree had to go just because someone was annoyed by the small apples that littered the ground. More sour than lemon, barely edible, but it may well have been some rare species.

I don't easily forget trees, in particular not those that have grown big and old, and I do not forgive those who fell them with no good excuse. A nearby road used to have a row of ashes, I think it was, between the traffic lane and the side-walk, until some "green" politicians decided to cut the trees, broaden the road and build a bicycle lane in their place. Two or three years later I still can't stand walking there through the empty space which used to be a tree trunk too thick for two persons to hug. There was a solid study a few years ago on the effect of trees on mental health, which of course concluded that having trees around where you live reduces depression. Perhaps most people are unable to notice their surroundings because they walk around with their eyes fixated on a small glowing screen, but I would think that even a periferal view of living trees would matter. And they host insects which attracts birds.

Some people reason that wildlife should be kept far off cities. Any vegetation there might be is safely sealed off, not allowed to sprawl. An outdoors version of bonsai cutting ensures that trees aren't allowed to be themselves and grow without interference. There may be some modest tree-planting efforts, but insufficient to balance the rate of felling, and in any case a sapling is never the equivalent of a mature tree. I suspect that the orderly sterile urban environment is desensitivising and that the messy intricacies of unkempt nature stimulates the sense of connectedness that some people are able to experience only with the help of psychedelics.

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