I Heart Badbury

Although I have said I wouldn't post here unless there was something definite to post about, and the days since I got back from leave haven't provided a great deal Churchy to comment on - I see no reason to add to the pile of speculation about how Sarah Mullaly will turn out as ABC - I find I have an itch to write a little. At some point I might retread my steps and report on visits to underground Margate or art exhibitions in London, but they are things anyone can find out about easily. Instead today, as I and Mum drove out to eat our fish and chips at Badbury Rings, I spotted a red heart painted on one of the gnarled old beeches of the 190-year-old avenue lining the B3082 between Wimborne and Blandford. So once our lunch was over and Mum relaxed into a doze I went for a walk not over the Rings as usual but to find the Heart. Here it is: it seems a fairly fresh addition, carefully painted into what I suspect is an old mark on the tree. The great Badbury trees are reaching the end of their lives, and already the National Trust has replaced many with hornbeams; a new line is growing behind them to renew their work when they finally die, but the landscape will look very different when they're finally gone.