How about trees, in view of the fact that we are told in emphatic terms, and have seen some striking evidence to back it up, that global warming is a reality and that we may be moving to a climate that is somewhat Icelandic, for example. France learned its lesson with the storms of Christmas and the newspapers are still following up the consequences. We on this island have to do some thinking and planning. If you live in a town or suburb and have a stately tree or two on the borders of your garden or land, take a good look at it and maybe ask for some advice. Does it need to be trimmed or brought down a few feet in case of a serious gale? Some trees, of course, are more stable than others. Oaks put down a hefty root deep into the earth. Others, say beech, are fairly shallow-rooted. Don't panic. Don't get in someone to deprive you and your neighbours of the many benefits of good trees, apart from the purely aesthetic look. There are experts to advise wisely: a bit of a trim here, or even a branch or two lopped there, could prevent your neighbour and yourself losing many benefits of flourishing trees. Not only shade and the sheer beauty of a well-proportioned tree make them valuable, for they act as great filters and improve the quality of the air we breathe. And then, of course, you should not be put off the urge to plant which comes with land. But do it judiciously.
A tree that is unlikely to give you problems, one that you'd like to see more often is the arbutus, arbutus unedo. Here it is chiefly connected with Killarney and district, where it flourishes. ("My love's an arbutus, by the borders of Lene.") Maybe you know it better as the Strawberry Tree. It produces round little berries, cherry size, with a surface not unlike that of the strawberry. Even when they colour up red, they taste, say some, of cotton wool, while Edlin, in his book The Tree Key, describes it as "yellow mealy flesh" which is "eatable but unpalatable". And many people who have the tree or shrub in their gardens as an ornamental addition, never discover that the secret is to wait until the berries become deep, deep red - maybe only in late October or into November - when they take on a lovely flavour. They can grow to be big trees. One in south Dublin had to be cut heavily, but flowers came on and by autumn it should bear fruit. Unusually, the white, bell-shaped flowers come in autumn side by side with the fruit. Mediterranean fruits come earlier and bigger.