A couple of days ago, an almost treeless Aran. Now a much-treed Geneva. The Quai Wilson runs along the side of the lake. It has some of the most prestigious buildings in the city, and is, of course called after an American President. Today as you stroll along in the sunshine, you notice tree after tree propped up by a wigwam of three stout poles.
Around the base of the tree is a short, pointed wooden fencing for protection. A resident tells us that 30 years ago the authorities decided that the huge plane trees which stood there at the time, being then over 100 years of age, should eventually be replaced. So at once (30 years ago, remember), they started, in one of their nurseries, to plant and cultivate the eventual successors which now stand with their props, sturdy and evidence of municipal foresight.
Our own park and tree experts are also people of vision.
Look at the Phoenix Park, always the same, yet always just a bit different. And Stephen's Green and many other places. But where Geneva is most ingenious is in incorporating into an expanding suburb the often huge and ancient trees that stood in the earlier farmland. A short walk in an area not far from the airport led into a narrow avenue, on one side of which a foot-path, maybe five feet wide, ran between the front gardens of the houses and aline of oaks of a girth which you could not encircle with your extended arms.
They are of a daunting height, yet obviously well pruned for safety. There were other trees in the line also, including two replacement oaks of about 15 feet. So, as the suburbs reach out, the planners refuse to contemplate hacking down glorious relics of the former countryside. If you don't want to live with trees, look for a flat in the city. Of course, you will find trees there, too.
And just a couple of miles from this avenue, you are suddenly driving through fields hedgeless, fenceless, unwalled - of barley, wheat, meadow, vines, sunflowers and, sudden surprise, one of flax. A couple of traditional farmsteads just off the (good) road. Nosuburban sprawl; then woodland, mostly recreational probably, and in a short circuit you are back in busy Geneva streets.