Dragons in the Pear Tree

The only thing better than being a lumberjack serious pruner of fruit trees, is listening to the squeals of delight from Posy and assorted neighbour children as sticks and small limbs rain down from the trees.

"This is my Sword of Power!"
"This is my dragon, and I'm riding on its back and I'm flying through the clouds."
"This is the mummy dragon!"

Climbing trees was one of my absolute favourite things to do as a child. Sitting at the top of a tree, hiding among the green leaves, the world seems to slow and there is a sense that you are outside time and divorced from the concerns of the petty world far below. So I must admit that as I sat up in our pear and apple trees, enjoying reliving my childhood, and having ever so much fun sawing off limbs and snipping whippy branches, that my tree pruning technique was far more directed to making the trees satisfying to climb, than making them efficient fruit producers. Although I'm no expert at that either. I just cut out criss crossing branches, make sure the middle is opened up a bit for air flow (and climbing) and cut back long whippy leaders.

And the neighbours seemed to enjoy it and threatened to record for posterity the funniest home video moment when I fell out of the tree. But I refused to fall out of the tree merely to provide for community mirth, and descended with dignity to chop up all the prunings and stack them along the side of the house for next Winter's kindling. And now the children are back at school I will have to chop up the Sword of Power, and even the mummy dragon. Sssh, don't tell.