Country diary: A generous, loving old soul is this tree | Josie George

Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire: I've been watching the big lime tree from my bed, where I must spend most of my day. It's time we got properly acquaintedIt is exactly 100 steps from my front door to the big lime tree on the corner - a marathon number for me, and so they happen very slowly as I lean heavily on my walking frame. I was determined to reach the tree today. I've been watching it from my bed, where I must spend most of my time, thinking about it with a cheerful obsession. I made a promise to myself that I would make friends with the things around me, and what better place to start than with the largest?Tilia x europaea - I've been saying its Latin name to myself like a spell, researching its facts and folklore, delighting that traditionally it's a tree under which people married - apt with its big heart-shaped leaves - but, until now, we have been distant acquaintances, merely waving back and forth. It was high time we met in person. Continue reading...