The chairman of MP Evans (see many previous posts) did an MBA at the Henley Business School on the Thames near Henley, natch, in the late 1980s. My mind resolutely refuses to grapple with anything serious but retains trivia and I recall the first exercise he was set at HBS.
It was a team effort and they had to count the number of trees in the extensive school grounds. The Friends of Margravine Cemetery have mapped the trees in the cemetery and have furnished me with a copy. I will invite Alex, a tree-lover but not an arborphile, and Ned for a pre-prandial peregrination.
(Arborphilia or dendrophilia is sexual attraction to trees, often leading to sexual intercourse, often referred to among deviants as “going green”.)
Gross, but better than hugging a husky.
There are more than three hundred trees in the 16.5 acre cemetery, offering arbophiles plenty of choice. I spent yesterday morning pottering round with some of the Friends. I saw a listed monument that hitherto I had overlooked, the falcons living at the top of Charing Cross hospital and saw my first caterpillar that eats box. They are well camouflaged and I failed to find one myself but the green-fingered Friends found plenty. In the autumn there is an abundance of field mushrooms if it’s a good year. Every year there is an abundance of ragwort but I sense more enthusiasm for reducing it somewhat.
Here’s a musical clue to what I’m doing today.