I think all that talk of coal may have been unlucky. We have had a fire-related accident at Aimo's House. One day, not sure which, we lit the fire with a £10 note. It was unintentional. There was this envelope with a Christmas present of a tenner in it, there was some waste paper, there was a fire lit, the tenner was only missed today, too late.
I could have punched a tree.
That reminded of the old days in Northumberland when we had Punchy Trees. They were trees with really thick, spongy bark you could punch; if for example, you had just accidently burnt a tenner and needed to blow off steam. Actually, when I was a girl £10 was an awful lot of money. I lived in Northumberland and there were lots of big old country-house type houses which were no longer lived in by big old country-house type families (there were also lots that were). When we lived in Gosforth (it was in Northumberland before the county boundaries changed) there was The Gosforth Park Hotel, a posh hotel in an old house, and we used to play in the grounds, which were kinda wild. You know, the good old days, when kids played out all day, crossed the A1 to go into overgrown woods with swamps and derelict icehouses, punching trees and the like.
When we lived in Hexham we used to go to the grounds of Duke's House, which used to be one of the Duke of Northumberland's little getaway holiday cottages. When we were kids a family lived there, but the grounds were kinda wild, overgrown, with swamps, derelict icehouses, a river, a pool, and punchy trees. The fun we had punching trees without adult supervision all day.
Last time I took my own children to punch some trees, I suspicion began to grow. Maybe they were specimen trees in the landscaping along with the rhododendrons. Maybe they were Californians Redwoods. They were quite big. I am now pretty sure they are. I hope I never meet David Attenborough because I will never be able to face him now, knowing I spent my childhood punching Californian Redwoods.
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