SCALE ON THE BAY - AND VICTORIA WAVING

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This is the shape of my Bay Tree. (A Golden Bay.)

(I was given it (in a pot) as a housewarming present fifteen years ago. The bay was nine inches tall and I lived in a flat.)

(Lucky I moved!)

And it's so tall, I'll have to draw it in sections.

THE TRUNKS

(The first branch is about five foot from the ground.)

THE MIDDLE

(The branches are cut back on one side so we can open the shed door. On the other, the lower ones are sawn off completely, making a one-sided arch we can walk under (about six foot high).)

THE TOP

(I am eye-level with the uppermost leaves when I look out of a first-floor window.)

Disaster may be striking.

Scale insects have arrived on the trunks.

They are a quarter of an inch long and shaped like shield bugs.

Each one sits separately on a tall white cushion - the cocoon of a single maggot.

They (the scales) are the same colour as the edges of brown crisps that have gone wrong. (Same texture too.)

I noticed them yesterday.

I'm planning murder.

Unless someone tells me not to, I'll scrape them off.

* * * * *

Victoria has been watching my mother-in-law through a telescope and is thinking she might wave.

Which arm should she use?

Ming's worried.

Why was his mum not in her cave?

(Martians are troglodytes.)

The M.O.D closes for ten days towards the end of June - Ming thinks we ought to visit her then and check she's ok.

(His mum.)

(Not Victoria.)

(!)

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